The Atlanta City Council in a 15-o vote on Monday, Sept. 18 approved the first step in the process of verifying 116,000 signatures in petitions submitted to begin the process for a referendum that would allow voters to choose if they want to repeal the ordinance that authorized the lease of roughly 300 acres of South River Forest land to the Atlanta Police Foundation.
The city has agreed to scan the petitions and post the signatures on the city’s website within 10 days for public access. Organizers of the Stop Cop City petition are requesting that the addresses and emails of signers not be included in the postings.
Last week a federal judge admonished City of Atlanta officials for their poor handling of the Stop Cop City petition submitted earlier on Sept. 11 to force the referendum and put the issue on the ballot for a vote.
The Atlanta City Council issued the following statement after approving legislation yesterday to begin scanning forms related to the referendum petition and making them available to the public:
“This afternoon, the Atlanta City Council unanimously approved legislation directing the Office of the Municipal Clerk to scan and publicly disclose the forms related to the Public Safety Training Center referendum submitted on September 11. Petition-driven ballot initiatives in Georgia are relatively new. The procedural and administrative authority still needs to be settled in state law. From the beginning of this process, we have encouraged organizers to participate through the democratic process, and we have no reason to believe that they have operated in anything but good faith. On multiple occasions, this extraordinary legal process has prevented the public and the Council from moving forward. We recognize that we are in unprecedented times. While we await a ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on this issue, the Atlanta City Council acknowledges the public interest in continuing to advance the…
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