Petition

Ray Walker wrote the following for this blog:

"We are rolling!

"Our petition has been approved for circulation and we can begin to collect the required number of signatures in order to get the City Council to enact or take it to the ballot. We have learned that the previous number of required signatures was based on the 2003 Mayoral election and we need to base our effort on the April 3, 2007 election at

"http://www.colecounty.org/clerk/files/04-03-07_Cumulative.txt.

"That election saw a total of 4,118 votes so we need 20% of that for a total of 824 qualified signatures!(Recall that Landwehr was not opposed and received 4,027 votes with 91 write-ins for the 4,118 total votes.)

"We have purchased an advertisement that will be published in the Sunday 4/18/10 paper. Check it out!

"We are NOT garbage cans but we can still ATTACK!"

Public Meeting by the Cituzens Committee

The Committee met privately on Friday and will hold a public meeting on Saturday:

Below is the notice sent to me:

"Public Information Gathering

"Informational meeting for the public to announce plans, strategy, etc, and take suggestions from public.

"We hope City Councilmen will be present.

"When: Sat Apr 10 10am – 12pm Central Time
"Where: Johnny's, Jefferson City, MO"

The Citizen's Committee Update

From the Citizen's Committee:

"Our original intention was, and remains, to allow the city council to address the matter by enacting the corrections we are seeking. Should they defer to the initiative process; i.e. wait to see what the voters say, we shall oblige by the circulation of the petition."

The right to petition has been approved and the actual petition has been generated.

My question remains: Why must citizens of Jefferson City go through all of these hoops when the right to petition is guaranteed in our United States Constitution?