LYNWOOD — A group of residents nonchalantly served Mayor Pro Tem Aide Castro, City Councilman Alfredo Flores and City Clerk Maria Quiñones with notices of intent to recall papers Tuesday night.

All three envelopes were handed to the city clerk during the City Council meeting.

Castro said she knew right away what was in her envelope, since she had already received the threat of a recall from individuals in the community.

Quiñones said she didn’t know what the envelope contained until she opened it after the meeting. She said she would rather not comment on being served, only that it “propels” her to move forward.

In a later e-mail, she said: “My goal is to continuously strive to move forward and make progress, always looking at improving services in the city clerk’s office.”

Reasons listed on Quiñones’ notice include that she is never at City Hall and that she doesn’t know how to answer questions pertaining to her job.

Castro said the people behind the recall effort made things up on their lists of reasons for recalling the three.

“One of the reasons listed on mine says that I drafted and supported the highest increase in the utility users tax, which is not even true,” she said.

“The only thing that is true, is that I don’t have a high school diploma. I only have a GED.”

She said the reasons cited for recalling her lack substance, unlike the successful recall of four City Council members in 2007.

“When there are real reasons like that behind a recall, then the community will stand behind it,” she said.

Even though some might say Castro is the most combative member of the council, she said that she is often criticized by supporters for not been combative enough.

“Regardless of what people say, [the City Council is] not always on the same page. … [Tuesday] night we had this huge discussion, we didn’t all feel the same, there was so much confusion, but what I love about this council is that we can honestly agree to disagree, we can totally vote differently or against each other, and the minute we vote on it, it’s a done item,and we can move onto the next item,” Castro said. “I’m not going to fight with certain council members just because people want me to fight with them, or want to instigate problems.”

Castro said she is confident that she has done a good job in the two years she’s been on the council.

“Is there room for improvement? Definitely. There is always room for improvement,” she said. “But I don’t think a [recall] was called for.”

“It’s disappointing because I would hope that if I’m being recalled, I would be recalled for real reasons,” she said. “But what can you do? I will respond to it, and do my part. But if the intention is to derail me, it’s not going to get too far. Of course, it worries me, because now I have to explain things to my family, so I do care. And at the same time, something like this tells you you can do more.”

A much bigger disappointment, Castro said, is that she knows most of the people who signed their names to the petition. “They’re not friends of mine, but I know who they are,” she said.

Flores’ notice also presented bogus reasons for his recall, Castro said. Among the reasons is that he is a “loner” and that he is not a property owner in Lynwood, thus is not qualified enough to be a council member.

“Quiñones’ notice was a little more mean-spirited than both of ours,” Castro said. “I don’t know what else to say, other than the reasons are interesting. But I guess in Lynwood, we’ve learned that here you don’t need a real reason to recall someone. You can literally say someone looked at you the wrong way, and [try to] recall them. Unfortunately, these types of intents to recall make a mockery of our democratic system.”

Castro, Flores and Quiñones have seven days from when the proponents file the papers with the city clerk’s office to respond to the notice of intent to recall.

In a brief interview Wednesday morning, Flores said he didn’t know exactly what his notice of intent listed as reasons to recall him, since he was at work and didn’t have the papers before him. He did say that he was surprised to get them.

“I didn’t see them coming,” he said. “But I respect people’s opinion, so I will be responding to the process properly. If people don’t think that I, or any of the people who got the recall papers, are doing a good job, then the people will let us know.”

Sylvia Ortiz, a proponent of the recall, could not be reached for comment.