ALAMEDA — Vice Mayor Malia Vella is facing a possible recall as a result of fallout from allegations that she violated the city charter by interfering in the selection of a fire chief.

An independent investigator cleared Vella of wrongdoing, but a group of residents still aim to circulate a petition to remove her from office.

The grounds, according to a “notice of intention” signed by 33 people, is “improper handling of the City Manager Jill Keimach matter.”

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A similar notice was presented to City Councilman Jim Oddie — who the investigator said used “improper influence” when he allegedly urged support for a union-backed candidate for fire chief — on June 5.

The proponents, however, failed to file an affidavit with the city within seven days of informing Oddie, and so their notice was invalid, City Clerk Lara Weisiger said.

It is also now less than six months before Oddie’s term will end, so he can no longer be subject to a recall, Weisiger said.

Keimach made her allegations against Vella and Oddie in a letter to the City Council last year. The city charter prohibits elected city officials from weighing in when the city manager makes hiring hiring decisions.

Keimach secretly recorded a conversation with Vella and Oddie using her cellphone, which she freely admitted because she said she wanted to document what she described as“unseemly” and “intense and unrelenting” pressure to go with the candidate favored by the firefighters union.

She was placed on paid leave in March and left in May after settling with the city following two days of closed-door mediation sessions.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the recording, which was forwarded by City Attorney Janet Kern and has not been made public.

It can be illegal to record someone without their knowledge. However, Keimach’s attorney, Karl Olson, contends the recording was legal and justified because she was attempting to document wrongdoing.

Keimach received $900,000 as part of her settlement with the city.

“I was hopeful that when an independent investigator found that none of her allegations against me had any basis in fact that all of us could move past this distraction and allow me to serve the people of Alameda,” Vella said in a statement Tuesday, when she learned of the recall effort.

“This does not seem to be the case. A very few people in this community continue to favor Ms. Keimach and believe her dismissal and her more than $900,000 settlement with the city was somehow unfair. I voted against Ms. Keimach’s settlement. I believe this was an outrageous sum of money to be paid to any employee leaving under a cloud and whose secret recordings of meetings has been referred to the Alameda County District Attorney,” she said.

Proponents of the recall were not immediately available for comment. Among those who signed the notice of intention were former Alameda Police Chief Burny Matthews and Janet Gibson, a former trustee with the Alameda Unified School District.

Weisiger said she still must verify the signatures before recall supporters can begin gathering voters’ signatures.

“That’s the first hurdle they have to meet,” she said.

If proponents meet the various thresholds, Weisiger said, they will have 120 days to collect signatures from at least 20 percent of registered voters in Alameda, or about 8,800 people.