Palmer Lake has been instructed to set a recall election for two town trustees after a protest filed against the campaign was ruled unsuccessful at an administrative hearing last week.

Trustees Shana Ball and Kevin Dreher will be on the ballot, but Dennis Stern, whose name also received the required amount of signatures, will not. Stern resigned as a trustee when he was appointed town mayor after the abrupt resignation of Glant Havenar earlier this month.

According to a finding by administrative hearing officer Karen Goldman, released on June 22, the change in position makes Stern ineligible for the recall election under state law.

The recall against the trustees was prompted by their votes in December to deem eligible a request by Texas travel chain Buc-ee’s to annex a proposed store location into the town.

Petitioners started the campaign in March. The recall campaigns for each of the three officials received over 300 verified signatures, above the required amount to prompt an election.

The Board of Trustees-appointed Goldman led a hearing on a protest filed against the recall effort. The protest, filed by Brian Yavanian, claimed one of the petition committee members failed to provide a legal address on the recall application.

“I feel it’s misleading,” Yavanian said at the hearing.

Yavanian claimed that organizer Beth Harris invalidated the campaign by using her post-office box address on recall petition forms and not a legal address within the town of Palmer Lake.

Grace Foy, a representative for Harris at the meeting, countered that many people in the small town use P.O. boxes due to limited mail delivery. P.O. box addresses correspond to mailboxes at a post office. Foy said they can be obtained free by Palmer Lake residents.

She said the P.O. box address was not flagged as an issue when the recall petition was initially approved by the town to start collecting signatures.

Harris said via email that a county assessor record showing her address in Englewood was outdated. She said she moved to Palmer Lake in 2021.

“I am, in fact, a registered Palmer Lake voter and a full-time Palmer Lake resident.”

Public records corroborate Harris’ status as a Palmer Lake resident and registered voter, going back to 2021.

Goldman’s finding on the protest was clear.

“Listing a post office address, while perhaps atypical, does not rise to the same level as not being properly registered and thus is not enough to reject the petition on its face,” the report said.

Palmer Lake Town Administrator Dawn Collins said that the Board of Trustees would discuss the petitions at its next meeting on June 30. According to state statute, the town will need to set the date for an election within 30 to 90 days.