Also Wednesday, a second group, the Omaha Citizens Coalition, picked up recall petitions against Suttle.
Former state Sen. Lowen Kruse, who heads the group, picked up the petitions about 1:30 p.m., said Douglas County Election Commissioner Dave Phipps.
The group now has 30 days - until Oct. 21 - to get enough signatures to force a recall election.
The group also has launched recall efforts against Councilman Pete Festersen and Councilwoman Jean Stothert.
The Mayor Suttle Recall Committee formally announced that it's moving ahead with an attempt to bounce Jim Suttle from office, criticizing him for “constant attempts to increase taxes in the midst of a recession.”
At a press conference Wednesday, spokesman Jeremy Aspen said the group plans to start the recall process by filing an affidavit against Suttle on Friday morning.
He said the group so far has recruited 150 volunteers and raised $35,000.
Aspen accused the mayor of being tone-deaf to public opinion, of lacking leadership and management skills and of breaking a campaign promise to lower property taxes.
“It's the will of the community at large,” Aspen said. “We have a right, an obligation to recall the mayor. Omaha needs leadership now.”
In a written response, Suttle Chief of Staff Steve Oltmans defended the mayor, saying he took office during a “financial crisis.”
“Mayor Suttle came together with the City Council to address the city's major financial challenges, keeping his pledge to the citizens of Omaha,” Oltmans said. “Now the city is well-positioned to move forward with a balanced budget and a platform to make city services more efficient and cost-efficient.”
Oltmans also said the group's recall effort would cost taxpayers $900,000 “that could result in cuts to city services.”
According to the Douglas County Election Commission, a recall could cost that much if three elections were needed: a recall election to remove Suttle from office, an election to choose a new mayor, and a runoff election.
The last election would only occur in at least one of the candidates for mayor didn't receive 50 percent of the vote.
Aspen said the potential cost of the recall attempt would “pale in comparison to the money we can save with a new mayor who is willing to cut costs.”
Also Wednesday, Nebraska and Douglas County Democrats issued a joint statement defending Suttle.
Suttle, who took office in June of last year, is a Democrat.
Mike Leahy, chairman of the Douglas County Democratic Party, said the recall effort against Suttle, “mocks and undermines what the recall process is truly for and attempts to negate the voices of those who voted fairly in the 2009 municipal elections.”
The recall group said Wednesday that the city cannot afford to wait until the next city election in 2013 to elect a new mayor. By then, the group says, “the damage that can be done...may be irreversible.”
The recall effort against Suttle is likely to follow the tactical playbook used when former Mayor Mike Boyle was removed from office in 1987.
But while Boyle's recall centered on his conflicts with the police chief and his personal conduct in office, the anti-Suttle push appears to be motivated by recent city tax hikes and a broader hostility toward government leaders.
“Certainly the parallels to the national mood are apparent,” said John Hibbing, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “People are upset with politicians. Sometimes they would rather not wait until the next scheduled election.”
Recall efforts are hardly a sure thing. Recent attempts to remove mayors since Boyle have fallen short.
If this new group succeeds in gathering 26,643 valid signatures from registered Omaha voters, it would force a special recall election probably in January. In that election, voters would decide whether to remove Suttle from office.
That timetable mirrors what happened 24 years ago, when Boyle became the only Omaha mayor to be recalled from office. The effort began after Boyle fired the police chief and following a series of lesser controversies that alienated even some of his supporters.
Recall organizers, including Jim Cleary, who also is involved in the current effort, lined up volunteers to circulate petitions outside Omaha polling places in the November 1986 general election.
Aspen said Wednesday that his group also plans to gather signatures in November, which would put volunteers in the field around the time of the Nov. 2 general election.
In 1986, the election day strategy helped the group collect more than 20,000 signatures in the first week, more than the number needed that year to force the special election. In all, the anti-Boyle effort collected nearly 35,000 signatures.
A high percentage of the signatures were valid because so many of them came from people who were eligible to vote. Organizers zeroed in on Republican-leaning west Omaha precincts, where Democrat Boyle was less popular.
If the Suttle recall goes forward, it's likely that Republican-leaning areas including Elkhorn, which was annexed under Suttle's predecessor will be targeted again. Suttle is a Democrat.
Aspen said Wednesday that his group's recall effort would be citywide.
Aspen said his group organized out of concern over Suttle's financial decisions. The city's property tax rate has gone up both years since Suttle took office in June 2009, and the latest budget also calls for an increase in the city's wheel tax and a new tax on restaurant, bar and catering tabs.
The committee says Suttle didn't look hard enough at cutting costs before raising taxes.
Rick Witmer, an associate professor of political science at Creighton University, said the anti-Suttle effort wouldn't be unique in targeting an elected official for recall because of a policy disagreement rather than misconduct.
Nationwide, recall provisions were added about 100 years ago to address criminal activity and cronyism among local elected politicians, Witmer said. Increasingly, however, recalls have been used to re-fight policy disputes or hold officials accountable for their decisions outside the regular election cycle.
“This is direct democracy at work,” Witmer said.
Voters removed Boyle by a double-digit margin, less than two years after he was re-elected to a second term with broad support.
Suttle narrowly defeated former Mayor Hal Daub, a Republican, less than two years ago. Daub has criticized Suttle's decisions but says he is not involved in the recall, even though several former Daub aides, including Cleary, are active participants.
Jim Rogers, executive director of the Nebraska Democratic Party, raised questions Wednesday about who's behind the Mayor Suttle Recall Committee's efforts.
“Daub loyalists first started advocating for a recall on the night Jim Suttle was elected mayor,” Rogers said.
Aspen said the recall effort was not the result of “sour grapes” over the outcome of last year's election.
In a Tuesday interview, Daub declined to discuss the recall or address whether he would seek the mayor's job if Suttle is removed from office.
“I think the people of Omaha will be smart enough to figure this out,” he said.
Meanwhile, the recall issue is somewhat muddled because a second group, the Omaha Citizens Coalition, has filed recall affidavits against Suttle and City Council members Jean Stothert and Pete Festersen. The coalition is headed by former State Sen. Lowen Kruse.
Kruse has said he doesn't want anyone removed from office but wants to prompt a discussion of city budget issues.
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