Petitioning Government

Sun., April 13, 1997

Chris Marr And Ann Prideaux

For better or worse, Spokane’s city charter has perhaps the most lenient requirements for initiatives of any city in Washington.

At present, petitions need not be registered or checked for legal compliance prior to circulation. More important, our charter provides no time limit for gathering signatures, meaning an initiative surfacing today might not come to a vote for years.

Although it takes signatures from 15 percent of the voter turnout in the last municipal election to force a special election on an initiative, it takes only 5 percent to qualify for the general election. It is surprising more proposals have not made it to the ballot box.

The challenge the Community Partners face is balancing the right of direct legislation, reserved for the people, with the need to maintain the orderly process of representative government. Requiring registration of a petition with the city clerk and imposing a six-month time limit for signature-gathering both attempt to do just that. Those provisions received overwhelming support at our recent town hall meeting.

There was less support for the concept of a “citizens’ petition” which would be subject to the above limitations and would require the signatures of 5 percent of those voting in the last municipal election. A citizens’ petition with sufficient signatures would receive a hearing before the City Council. If the council failed to enact the petition an advisory vote by the public would follow.

If that vote were affirmative, the petition would receive a second council hearing for reconsideration.

While only advisory in nature, the citizens’ petition provides for timely, visible debate by the council and better informed consideration by the electorate, with a much lower level of signature-gathering effort than an initiative.

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