AVENAL, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The Kings County Board of Supervisors took new action Friday in the case of the recall rollercoaster ongoing in the City of Avenal.

In front of many of the concerned citizens who pushed for four of the city’s five councilmembers to be recalled, the board unanimously passed a resolution to officially find the four positions vacant and that they must be filled as part of the Nov. 3 statewide general election.

The decision came following public comment from some of those same citizens leading the recall efforts.

“I’m going to ask you guys to consider this resolution and pass it so that we can move on as a community and rebuild,” asked recall organizer Ginger Wallis.

Kings County Supervisor Richard Valle, who represents the area as part of District 2, also chimed in about the situation ahead of the vote.

“When you see a recall election take place and elected officials, unwilling, refuse to flat out just leave, that’s not American,” Valle said to the crowded room. “That’s anti-American.”

The action comes a day after the lone councilmember not recalled in the City of Avenal, Ricardo Verdugo, appointed himself mayor.

Valle says the board never publicly took a side in the recall efforts, but said they had to get involved after the four councilmembers, Mayor Alvaro Preciado, Leticia Gamez, David Reynosa, and Pablo Hernandez, failed to step down after they were overwhelmingly recalled in April.

However, Avenal City Manager Antony Lopez says with litigation already ongoing, he believes the county’s action is unnecessary and premature.

“Still kind of going through the quo warranto process. Something that the county itself had requested to find guidance on how to process, or how to kind of move forward with the supposed recall. So, we think the county should respect that and allow the process to play through before trying to call for any special elections,” Lopez told YourCentralValley.com

Still, even with the passage of the resolution, one Avenal man says there’s only one way he thinks the drama comes to an end.

“You need a court order, so the judge will tell the sheriff, ‘Go out there and get them out. And if need be, handcuff them and throw the scoundrels into jail,'” said Avenal resident Mario Pesquera.