An attempt to recall the mayor of Oakdale has failed because of a lack of signatures.

Recall leader Bridget Perkins confirmed Wednesday that plans to remove Mayor Gene Paul from office had failed because the group was unable to garner enough signatures to meet the filing deadline. The deadline for filing the petition was Wednesday.

The petition received 600 signatures, but fell short of the 936 signatures needed to push the recall to the next step, Perkins said.

As for trying again, Perkins said “I would say that depends on the citizens of Oakdale and if the mayor is actually committed to doing his job correctly and demanding accountability.”

Perkins said many people were in support of the recall and made statements against the mayor and what he was doing, but were unable to sign the petition for one reason or the other. Many of those people could not sign the petition because they are not registered voters, or were afraid to get involved because of retaliation or fear of them or their loved ones losing their jobs, she said.

“I think by and large the people are afraid of Gene Paul and everything he’s doing,” Perkins said. “I think they are mad that the money was stolen and truly believe he didn’t do what he was voted to do. As a mayor he failed the people of Oakdale.”

“I think the fact that we had 600 people willing to sign their name to the paper says they wanted to recall him,” she continued. “And I don’t regret being a part of that because we stood up for what is right and have shown the mayor he can’t bully us. I just feel sorry for the people who were scared and couldn’t sign it because they had something to lose.”

The outcome did not surprise Paul, who is currently serving his third term as mayor.

“It put a cloud over the city and my job duties, but we have been moving forward with a lot of infrastructure projects,” Paul said. “We will continue to work for the city like it is a new day. I felt like they wouldn’t be successful, but now we can move on and put it behind us.”

The grass-roots group Community to Recall Oakdale Mayor Gene Paul began the recall petition in January.

The group had 180 days to secure 33 and one-third percent, or 934, of the city’s 2,807 registered voters’ signatures to trigger a recall election.

The group accused the mayor of failing to do his job by not overseeing the city’s finances after local and state audits found more than $897,000 in misappropriated public funds.

An investigative audit released by the state in January accused former city clerk Melissa “Lisa” Schaefer of using electronic transfers to divert city funds to herself, using city checks to divert city funds to herself and using city funds to pay two personal credit card accounts. Additional allegations of misuse of funds could be forthcoming as the investigation continues.

Schafer, who was clerk for 19 years, died before the state investigation was completed.