City Government
On the Nov. 4 ballot, Austin residents will not only face a decision between McCain and Obama, but also whether to prevent the city from subsidizing retail stores.
If approved, a new citizen-led initiative called Stop Domain Subsidies will halt any tax rebates or subsidies provided by the city to retail stores. City officials designed the subsidies to generate more tax revenue by attracting more retail stores. In its last meeting, the city council approved the initiative’s wording for the Nov. 4 ballot.
County commissioners decided Wednesday to ask residents whether they want to squelch themselves.
By a 4-1 vote, commissioners agreed to put four proposed charter amendments on the Nov. 4 ballot. The changes, if approved by voters, would make it harder for citizens to change the county charter or enact ordinances commissioners refused to consider. They would also prevent any question regarding citizen initiatives or tax referendums from being considered at any time other than during general elections every two years.
A Honolulu judge ruled Thursday that the city clerk’s office must accept an anti-rail petition.
Members of Stop Rail Now say they believe the ruling paves the way to allow Oahu residents to vote on a proposed ordinance this fall that reads, “Honolulu mass transit shall not include trains or rail.”
Circuit Court Judge Karl Sakamoto’s decision means the city clerk must accept and verify within 20 days whether Stop Rail Now has gathered a sufficient number of valid signatures.
Councilman Eric Crafton turned in the signatures of reportedly 12,503 registered Davidson County voters to the Metro Clerk’s office Thursday, clearing the way for the English Only charter amendment proposal to be on the ballot in November.
Crafton also conceded at least a portion of the approximately $20,000 the petition drive cost came from a national English First group. He said he did not know what percentage.
“I wasn’t the one adding them up, so I don’t know how much,” Crafton said.
A dozen Gloucester residents representing several community groups have initiated a recall of Mayor Carolyn Kirk, saying her handling of the high school “pregnancy pact” brouhaha was the final straw in her failure to lead the city “fairly and effectively.”
In a petition being circulated, the group also says the mayor has failed to ensure open government by refusing to investigate and prosecute waste and fraud, particularly in the police and public works departments.
Clear as mud.
Those three words pretty well sum up the status of a local petition drive to limit the compensation of individual Chippewa County Commissioners to $8,400.
“We all know the value of petitions,” said one of the key members of the grassroots organization, Debbie Sirk, in presenting the signatures to the board. “Now let’s work together to find a way to put this on the ballot.”
The commissioners, however, expressed a reluctance to give their approval and, from all indications, they weren’t even sure if they could.
The Say Yes to Sunday group says it has more than enough signatures to give Ottawa County voters a chance to repeal the ban on Sunday beer and wine sales.
Now they’ll have to wait and see how many of those petition signatures are from registered Ottawa County voters.
The group said it has 39,700 signatures as of 8 this morning, which — if they are all valid — is 1,944 more than necessary to get the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Residents in Troy may get to decide during the November election whether the city would need to get voter approval for future tax increases. Advertisement
The Troy City Council is considering a citizen-initiated petition, signed by more than 2,700 residents, that proposes freezing the city’s tax rate for operating and capital costs at 8.1 mills, costing a resident with a home that has a $124,885 taxable value — the average in Troy — $1,012 a year.
The council discussed the issue Monday but postponed making a decision until the Aug. 11 meeting.
Leaders of an anti-rail group say they have collected enough signatures for a petition initiative that could stop the city’s proposed $4 billion rail transit system.
They planned to submit it to the City Clerk’s Office by 2 p.m. today.
Cliff Slater, an organizer of Stop Rail Now, said they had collected about 49,000 signatures as of yesterday, when they made their final rally for signatures outside the organization’s South Street headquarters.
A petition with more than 400 signatures calls for the Village of North Fond du Lac to go to referendum for all future expenditures that exceed $1 million.
The petition was filed in the village office on Thursday, just one day after a heated public hearing during which officials moved plans forward, despite some citizen opposition, for a $37 million lakeside hotel/convention center/marina.
Flushing residents are collecting signatures from passers-by to recall two local politicians—Councilman John Liu (Queens) and New York State Assemblywoman Ellen Young. The Epoch Times interviewed some of the supporters on July 20, 2008.
A measure to name a city sewage plant for President George W. Bush has qualified for the November ballot in San Francisco, officials said.
A group calling itself the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco said in June it had collected enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot, and then turned the signatures in to elections officials July 7.
The city clerk says “no” to a citizen’s petition drive trying to block the $4 billion city rail transit plan.
The decision yesterday afternoon from City Clerk Denise De Costa means she will not put the issue on the November ballot, regardless of whether Stop Rail Now receives enough signatures.
De Costa says the City Charter prohibits a special initiative issue from being placed on the ballot within 180 days of an election.
A citizen initiative designed to limit sprawl around Reno appears headed for the November ballot.
Supporters on Friday turned in petitions with more than 28,000 signatures _ about 10,000 more than the 18,093 signatures required to qualify the measure for the ballot.
If approved, the initiative would require growth in Washoe County to be based on sustainable water resources within the county and would ban the importation of water from outside the county.
Officials said it would be the first binding question on growth limits to appear on a county ballot.
Fairway has successfully defended itself against a lawsuit filed by three residents.
The residents — Mike McAlister, Klaus Ulrich and James Kernell — filed the suit last year after the city declined to adopt or put on the ballot two ordinances that would have restricted where Fairway could build a new city hall and allow commercial development.