Mark Legband has no regrets on how he has served Fremont as a city councilman for Ward 1.
“I’m very proud of the work that I’ve done in my 6 ½ years,” the council president said. “When I ran, 6 ½ years ago I said I was running to try and help Fremont grow. We’ve done that and we’ve done it in a good way. Everything has been going very well.”
Legband is hopeful his work for the city will continue, but there is at least one person who would like to see it end.
Rachel Tuff filed a petition on April 16 to recall Legband from his position. As of Tuesday, Tuff has 30 days to collect 574 signatures from Ward 1 to trigger a special election.
Legband told Walnut Media on Thursday morning that he was disappointed by Tuff’s actions, but wasn’t totally surprised.
“She has threatened it many times in city council meetings,” he said. “She has come up and blasted the city council and has threatened legal actio. She has threatened many things against us.”
Legband said he understood why Tuff targeted him since he has “the biggest bullseye” as president of the council.
“But she has already said she is going to go after other councilmen after me if she is successful,” he said. “She said if she is successful with those other people, she may go after the mayor, too. I’m just the first stepping stone for her and hopefully she doesn’t get anywhere with this. Then we can move on and take care of business at the city council meetings and take care of the city like we should.”
In a statement regarding the reason for the recall, Tuff alleges that Legband “failed to adequately fulfill the duties set forth in his oath office and the provisions of the Fremont Municipal Code that require a council member to protect the public health, safety, morals and general welfare of the community.”
In the petition, Tuff also alleges that Legband was “disrespectful” toward other council members.
Legband said Tuff has been outspoken against the council’s work to investigate contract violations between the Dodge County Humane Society and the City of Fremont. He believes the council followed the advice of the city’s attorneys throughout the probe.
The City of Fremont terminated the DCHS contract in February and now has a contract with FurEver Homes for animal sheltering services.
“It is definitely the humane society things (that sparked the petition),” Legband said. “This is all about the humane society and she kept saying we weren’t moving fast enough and we weren’t doing things the way she wanted things done. But there were so many things that needed to be done before we got rid of the contract with the humane society. We had to have another animal control all set up. If we tear up that contract and we have no animal control for the city, then it would’ve been a mess.”
The councilman believes people are pleased with the current setup.
“It has worked out great,” he said. “We have a great contract with FurEver Homes and everyone is very happy with the work they are doing. I think everyone, especially the police and the city is very happy with the way things turned out. We did it the right way, but she kept saying we weren’t going fast enough. There are so many other things behind the scenes that needed to be done before we could look at tearing up that contract.”
Several Fremont residents have reached out to Legband about the recall matter.
“All the comments I’ve heard from people all over Fremont have been very supportive of the work I’ve done,” he said. “They’ve been very supportive of wanting me to stay in and fight the fight here. They are all disappointed that someone felt like they needed to do something like this, but I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of this support. It has been very nice to get this support and have people back you up.”
Legband said the potential recall is “very disappointing,” but it has made him reflect on his future.
“I was debating on whether I was going to run in a year-and-a-half — we’ll see how it goes,” he said. “But this has kind of got me a little fired up and I’m thinking that maybe I will run again in a year-and-a-half. We’ll see how things work out.”
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