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Charter Commission <br />November 15, 2007 <br />Page 6 <br />APPROVED <br />n <br />221 Commissioner Dahl asked if a number could be utilized instead of a percentage. <br />222 <br />223 Ms. Marty replied in the affirmative, and stated a number could be utilized in addition to a <br />224 percentage, e.g., 12% up to a maximum of 500 signatures. <br />225 <br />226 Commissioner Stockman Maher stated that 250 signatures is a lot of signatures to obtain on a <br />227 petition. <br />228 <br />229 Chair Duffy stated that the Commission discussed this issue at length at its last meeting and <br />230 stated her preference for using 12% up to a maximum of 500 signatures. <br />231 <br />232 Commissioner Dahl asked what the ramifications would be if, instead of requiring 12% to <br />233 petition for a referendum, you reverse it, i.e., if you do not want a referendum on a particular <br />234 road, you have to petition for that. <br />235 <br />236 Ms. Marty replied it creates an option that would likely never be exercised. <br />237 <br />238 Chair Duffy stated the Commission previously discussed eliminating a blanket referendum <br />239 provision. <br />240 <br />241 Ms. Marty stated if you make the petition process easy, you protect your residents. <br />'42 <br />243 Commissioner Trehus asked if the Commission was attempting to appease the City Council. He <br />244 stated the Commission should be looking at the referendum issue in terms of what is good for the <br />245 entire city, not what the City Council is going to accept, and let the voters decide. He indicated <br />246 the Charter Commission has included strong citizen rights in its proposal. <br />247 <br />248 Ms. Marty asked what each Commissioner would like to have included in the amendment with <br />249 respect to giving people the right to petition for a referendum. She stated the simplest way is to <br />250 have a petition process where people can ask for referendum. <br />251 <br />252 Commissioner Dahl stated that perhaps a good compromise would be the requirement for a <br />253 referendum on any project over a certain dollar amount. <br />254 <br />255 Chair Duffy stated that if the amendment includes a set dollar amount, the Charter will have to be <br />256 amended to keep up with inflation. <br />257 <br />258 Commissioner Bor requested that the Commissioners consider two questions: Does the <br />259 Commission want every road reconstruction project to go to referendum automatically, or does <br />260 the Commission want to keep it as currently being proposed where you petition for a referendum <br />261 with 12% of the votes cast for mayor in the last mayoral election? <br />262 <br />6 <br />