FAYETTEVILLE -- It's up to voters to decide whether to uphold or repeal an antidiscrimination ordinance the City Council approved Aug. 20.
Workers in City Clerk Sondra Smith's office stopped certifying signatures about 6:30 p.m. Friday when about 4,250 signatures had been deemed valid.
Just 4,095 signatures, 15 percent of the ballots cast in the last mayoral election, were needed to force a special election.
"Once you get over that number, you don't have to certify the rest of them," Smith said.
"We certified the petitions as sufficient," she added.
A group called Repeal 119 turned in more than 5,700 signatures Sept. 20, the day the ordinance was scheduled to take effect. Delivery of the petitions put the ordinance on hold.
Smith said some petitions were deemed invalid during the past week because they weren't notarized or weren't signed or dated by a notary. Some petitions were disqualified because they didn't include the address of the canvasser.
The Civil Rights Administration ordinance, if it stands, will prohibit specific types of discrimination against people because of their sexual orientation, gender identity and several other characteristics. It will also create a municipal civil rights administrator position to field, investigate and, in some cases, mediate complaints of discrimination.
City Council members must now schedule and pay for the special election. The election must be held within 60 to 120 days, according to the City Attorney's office. Because state law requires special elections to be held on the second Tuesday of a month, the election can only be held Dec. 9 or Jan. 13.
City Council members are expected to take up the issue at their Oct. 7 meeting.
Smith estimated the election will cost between $20,000 and $30,000, plus overtime pay for clerk's office employees who logged long hours this week.
Jennifer Price, Washington County election coordinator, said city officials must submit ballot language to the County Clerk's office by Oct. 10 for a Dec. 9 election. That will give the County Clerk's office sufficient time to print ballots and mail absentee ballots, Price said.
Justin Tennant, Ward 3 alderman, one of two council members to vote against the ordinance, said Friday evening he was happy to see the issue go to a public vote.
"I think that this can and should be decided by the voters of Fayetteville," Tennant said. "I don't know what the result will be, but we will find out."
He added he was disappointed an amendment he proposed Aug. 19 failed. The amendment would have put the ordinance on the Nov. 4 general election ballot. Tennant and Alderman Martin Schoppmeyer voted in favor of the amendment. Aldermen Rhonda Adams, Adella Gray, Mark Kinion, Alan Long, Sarah Marsh and Matthew Petty voted against it.
"There's a cost associated with a special election and a lot of effort," Tennant said Friday. "We're in a tight budget situation in the city, and I am not happy with having to find $30,000 somewhere. I'm not sure where we'll find it, but we'll have to by law."
Petty, the ordinance's sponsor, didn't immediately return a message left Friday evening.
He said previously aldermen would have been abdicating their duties as elected officials had they not taken a stance on the ordinance.
"I believe we have a majority support of the public (for this ordinance), and we've had that for some time," Petty said last month.
NW News on 09/27/2014