Oakland -- A group of Oakland residents filed a petition Monday declaring its intent to recall Mayor Jean Quan, saying she has failed to provide strong leadership for the city, particularly on crime and unemployment.

The notice, filed with the city clerk's office, was signed by 71 residents who say they intend to circulate a recall petition against Quan for "willfully ignoring the city's most pressing issue: public safety."

It goes on to say that Quan has offered "no rational solution to mitigate the chaos," that she ignored Oakland residents' demand for more police officers and has proposed an $11 million parcel tax on top of an existing $200 million parcel tax.

The petition also criticizes Quan for her stands on development issues, saying she is "squandering an opportunity to shape the largest development project in Oakland's history - the Oakland army base."

"After nearly a year in office, she has exhibited no leadership or insight to develop and implement a sustainable solution to our growing unemployment and depressed economic development," the petition says. Oakland has a 15 percent unemployment rate, while the state's is 11.4 percent.

City Clerk LaTonda Simmons said that this is the first time anyone had filed an attempt to recall an elected Oakland official in at least nine years.

Among those residents who signed the petition are some Ron Dellums supporters, including Gene Hazzard. The document also includes a former Oakland Unified School District board member, Toni Cook. Hazzard, a member of the Oakland Black Caucus, collected the signatures and said the list included "multiple" people from every district.

Sue Piper, Quan's spokeswoman, said the mayor was "busy with the city's top priorities" and was unavailable to answer media questions about the petition. Piper pointed out examples of the mayor's leadership on public safety: hiring 38 officers to make up for the retirement and transfer of others, securing a federal grant to hire 25 more officers, holding a safety summit with 1,000 residents and developing a "neighborhood safety plan."

On economic development, Piper said the mayor was working with businesses and community leaders on half a dozen major projects.

The petition filed Monday is just the first step in a long process.

The city now has to verify that at least 50 of the signatures are from registered voters in Oakland. In addition, Quan now has seven days to respond to the petition.

After the signatures have been verified, recall advocates can submit a proposed recall petition to the city clerk. Once that is verified, recall proponents would have 160 days to get roughly 19,800 signatures, according to Supervising Deputy City Attorney Mark Morodomi.

How and when people could sign that petition is still being sorted out, Hazzard said.

Once those signatures are verified, an election would be called. It would be consolidated with a general election if such an election falls within 88 to 125 days.

Hazzard said the group's statement reflects issues that the group agreed on. But he said people may have other reasons for wanting to recall Quan. In his case, he said, he was enraged by Quan's refusal to reappoint West Oakland resident Margaret Gordon to the Port Commission. Instead, Quan appointed Jakada Imani, the executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, to Gordon's seat.

Gordon is an environmental activist who is highly regarded by many West Oakland residents for her fight against air pollution in that area.

Hazzard said the appointment showed "reckless disregard" for both Gordon and the "health of the city."