NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – An effort to recall embattled Jefferson Parish President Mike Yenni has collected 10,000 signatures.
Yenni, who has admitted to sending sexual text messages to a 17-year-old boy, has been facing heavy pressure to resign his post.
Members of the Jefferson Parish City Council passed a vote of “no confidence” in Yenni last week, just hours after he made his first public address to the council, asking them to let him do his job.
“The mistakes I have made will never be repeated,” Yenni said in his address to the council. “That is not just my promise to the people, that is my promise to God…Now it is my job to move this parish forward, and I humbly ask you to let me do my job.”
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand, who has said Yenni should resign in the wake of the sexting scandal, signed the recall petition last week at a Night out Against Crime event.
The recall petition effort, started by Metairie attorney Robert Evans III, must collect signatures from 33 percent of registered voters in Jefferson Parish, which amounts to about 95,000 signatures, in order for a recall election to occur.
For his part, Yenni has steadfastly refused to resign, although he has signaled his willingness to “abide by the will of the people” in a television commercial he created just after news of the scandal broke.
The petition can be signed in person at Duckworth Tires on Metairie Road, Top Dollar Gold Buyers on Barataria Boulevard in Marrero or on Williams Boulevard in Kenner, or at the Hand Law Firm in Gretna.