Below are the details of the City Hall Petition efforts by the residents of Jersey Village as provided by Ashley Brown.
Petition Timeline Facts:
Feb 10th
- I called Lorri with the city to ask her about charter amendment petitions. She informed me that a charter amendment would need to have been submitted earlier because the deadline to call a special election was Feb 12th. I asked her if there was any type of petition I could do then, for November, she said an initiative petition. I asked her for guidance on how to do a petition she said the charter has instructions and told me to look up the Secretary of State’s website.
- I then called the Secretary of State’s election division and asked for their guidance on the petition. They guided me to their website with the requirements for a valid signature for a petition. I asked them if any specific wording was needed and they instructed me a petition can say anything I wish. If the city wanted to negotiate how to put it on their ballot to vote that was between me and them.
Feb 27th
- I met with two of my volunteers and we discussed the initiative petition and what our goal was for this petition. We decided the goal was to leave the city hall in its current location so that was how we wrote the sentence.
Feb 28th
- My campaign team began canvasing & gathering signatures
April 7th
- Met with Lorri about the petition, we had about 400 signatures at that time. She looked over it and the only criticism she said was we needed more signatures. She also copied down the exact wording of the petition. Justin Pruitt called in the middle of this meeting & Lorri told him “I am speaking with the lady about the petition right now.” I did not file the petition this day as I wanted to gather more signatures but not once did she advise me we would need to alter the language of the petition in the 30 minutes I met with her.
- During this meeting, she referred back to the notes on the red light camera petition and how it was received so she could advise me on how to file the petition.
- She sent me the link to the city charter which I had already reviewed.
- Lorri suggested I submit it as a referendum petition instead of an initiative petition but that didn’t make sense to me since there was nothing to reference for a referendum.
April 14th
- I filed the petition with approx. 900 signatures, 783 signatures were needed in order to make the petition valid. Of those 900 approx. 55 were invalid still leaving plenty of signatures for the petition.
May 1st
- Elections held
May 3rd
- I was informed by Lorri via phone call, email & US mail that the petition was not valid based on the interpretation of the city attorney.
- I called the Secretary of State election division and spoke with Chuck in their legal department. He informed me that the courts tend to error on the side of the petitioner and since my petition was clear he believed it could be found valid. He said he would be happy to speak to the city if they called on this subject.
May 4th
- Bobby Warren’s meeting at the civic center to discuss the Village Center progress and the City Hall commenced.
May 5th
- I spoke with the city attorney Justin Pruitt who refuses to call the Secretary of State’s office over this petition. Justin claimed the city secretary made the call not him.
- He said that had my sentences had the words “initiative petition & ordinance” then the petition would have been valid.
- Austin B. received the bid from the construction contractor for $10 million to build city hall
May 7th
- Agenda and meeting packet posted online for the city council meeting on May 10th.