Protest petitions: DOA?
This week's column.
They nuked it with silence.
A proposed bill that would have restored to Greensboro citizens what others already have in the state’s other major cities went before it came on May 15.
The bill in question would have restored the right to use protest petitions in Greensboro.
A protest petition would require a two-thirds super majority (at least a 7-2 vote in favor) for the City Council to approve a disputed rezoning. To force such a vote, opponents would have to produce signatures from owners of at least 5 percent of the adjoining land.
Greensboro asked for and received an exemption to that state law that allows protest petitions in 1971. Despite the sheer reasonableness of the law, we as a citizenry have been without that right ever since, even as Charlotte, Raleigh, Winston-Salem and High Point seem to have gotten along just fine with protest petitions all those years.
They’re without it still.
The new bill already had a willing sponsor in state Rep. Pricey Harrison. If the county’s legislative delegation simply had asked, it likely would have been a shoo-in to pass in Raleigh. All it lacked was an official request from the City Council — which never came.
When the local legislators convened to take up the matter on May 15, it still hadn’t heard from the council. As it turns out, the council didn’t say yes or no to the idea. In fact, it didn’t say anything. It just sucked the life out of the bill — at least for now — by sealing its collective lips.
“We should have had an open dialogue on the dais about this,” Councilwoman Sandra Anderson Groat said last week.
Groat questioned why the council heard a briefing on the protest petition bill but never actually discussed it. When asked why legislation that works elsewhere won’t work here, Groat, who is a builder by trade, shrugged. “I don’t know. I absolutely don’t know.”
Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw, a retired real estate agent, said she was surprised as well that there wasn’t a public discussion of the issue. She also said she supports the idea of protest petitions but even if she didn’t, she believes the council is obligated to discuss it and that it should revisit the subject. “If it doesn’t,” she said, “I’ll certainly bring it up.”
To hear some in the development community tell it, however, protest petitions are downright un-American. Marlene Sanford, president of the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition, not only opposes protest petitions in Greensboro, she opposes them everywhere. “Frankly,” she wrote in a letter to Guilford legislators, “the protest petition is antiquated and should be repealed statewide.”
Sanford argued as well that Greensboro — and “only Greensboro” — already allows a “Citizens Initiative Petition where citizens can take any ordinance (including rezonings) to a citywide referendum.”
That’s not exactly true. The city charter does empower citizens to overturn a City Council vote by petition and referendum. (In 2003, a local group used the maneuver in a failed attempt to block the downtown baseball stadium.)
But Greensboro is hardly unique in this respect. Nine other municipalities in the state include similar provisions in their charters.
Even if the council may oppose the idea of protest petitions, it would have been useful to hear why, in the light of day. After all, there are some valid concerns. For instance, is the 5 percent threshold too low? And is Greensboro by nature so contentious that it might abuse the option? (We have tended over the years to file more petitions than other cities in the state.)
So why not debate these concerns in the open?
“My read on it is that we had a lot of things going on and this was bigger to the bloggers than the rest of the community,” Councilman Robbie Perkins, a developer, said, referring to the council’s overflowing plate of hot issues.
But the council’s silence only feeds the perception that it is predisposed to side with developers. And, even Perkins, after raising various questions about protest petitions, conceded that the issue deserved more than a conspicuous non-answer. “This is not over,” he said. “This thing is going to be discussed again.” As well it should be.
Love it or hate it, the bill never got a fair hearing. More discouraging than the squelching of the idea was the squelching of the discussion.
Mayor Yvonne Johnson agreed that the council would revisit the protest petition movement. That would only be fair.
After all, you don’t build dialogue with silence. And you don’t build trust without dialogue. We can only hope the council will follow through on its pledges.
If not, I’d protest. And you should, too.
Comments (3)
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Johnson: "Greensboro asked for and received an exemption to that state law that allows protest petitions in 1971."
Allen, how do you know this? So far Greensboro can provide no local documentation to support their request for exemption.
Might the N&R be able to explain the process and who was involved?
Posted on May 27, 2008 4:12 PM
If the Greensboro City Council starts to say we need time to look at the situation delay delay delay, then we know they are hoping it will go away. Think not
If the Greensboro City Council tries to block this bill, than we will know where they truly stand bought and paid for by the TREBIC CARTEL
If the Greensboro City Council wants to be for the people by the people than back this bill.
Take your pick, but choose wisely.
This is not going to go away.
Tony makes a good point, I would want to see the minutes of all of this, and it will probably show that the city council under a secret plan snuck this exemption in without any notice or opposition from the citizens of Greensboro.Time to make this wrong a right with passing a bill to make Greensboro comply with North Carolina General Statute 160a-385 and 386.
This exemption has Jim Melvin odor all over it. one.
Posted on May 28, 2008 5:23 PM
Mr. Johnson,
On June 17, 2008 2 members of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens of the Triad went to the Greensboro City Council Meeting and during the "Speakers from the Floor" time, spoke to the City Council on asking them where they stand on bringing back Protest Petitons to Greensboro.
Senator Phil Berger wanted to know where they stand and I am sure plenty of Greensboro citizens want to know too.
Let's see what happens from this point on but the clock has started and our coalition has asked for support of the Greensboro City Council on bringing back Protest Petitions to Greensboro.
Posted on June 18, 2008 9:55 PM