The El Paso City Clerk’s office has certified that the petitions submitted by a citizens’ group to put a referendum on the city’s May 9 election ballot to move the PSB’s stormwater utility to City Hall.
The two-step petition drive organized by Gerald Miller, Lee Urias, Jerry Thiedt and others appears to be the first in El Paso’s history to reach the ballot.
Past efforts have failed when the clerk’s office could not verify that they had garnered the required number of signatures by registered voters.
Two weeks ago, Miller and company turned in nearly 5,000 signatures, though they needed only 2,022 to put the referendum on the ballot.
“At the very beginning of this thing, I stood in front of City Council and said, ‘If you don’t do the right thing for the voters, consider today the official start date for a petition,' ” Miller said. “I didn’t know anything about it. But I had a lot of people who wanted to get involved.”
If approved by voters, the stormwater referendum would have the same force as an ordinance approved by City Council and would stop the operation of the stormwater utility by the El Paso Water Utilities’ Public Service Board until operational authority is established under City Council.
* * *
To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or call (915) 351-0605, ext. 30
