HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. — For well over a year, Howey-In-The-Hills Councilman Matt McGill and Mayor Martha MacFarlane have often verbally sparred during town meetings.

• Councilman Matt McGill says his constitutional rights are being violated
• Some residents have started petition to ask for vote to recall him
• He says he was fairly elected by majority of voters and won't resign

Some residents blame McGill for the discord and have started a petition to ask for a voter recall. Others hope he simply resigns.

“I'd be a coward if I resigned," McGill said. "I was elected by 379 people of Howey — the majority vote — to do what I'm doing, and that's to expose what they're doing wrong: the wasteful spending, the ordinance violations, the policy violations. That's what they elected me to do, and I'm not going to stop."

McGill and two other council members were absent from Monday night’s council meeting because of unrelated security concerns, so no official business was taken up.

But several residents used the opportunity to express their concerns about McGill — among those concerns, a letter of intent to sue the town, filed by McGill and two others.

“It's a claim of my rights being violated. The First, Fourth, and Fourteenth amendment rights. They have six months to respond,” McGill said.

McGill wouldn’t give specifics about the claims mentioned in the lawsuit and referred us to his attorney.

Meanwhile, he is facing a recall vote that could happen in two months if all legal requirements are met — something that the majority of residents at Monday's meeting said they hope will happen sooner than later.

“We had an incredibly good turnout of really good people who are very supportive our current mayor, and the people who are trying to get control of the situation and make our Howey better,” Howey-In-The-Hills resident Peter Tuite said.

Elected officials in the pastoral Lake County town of Howey-In-The-Hills serve four-year terms.