Democracy on the Front Lines
City Administrator’s Blog
Walter Denton
December 11, 2007
The stormwater utility referendum has been removed from the February 5 ballot. It was due to several factors, but we simply did not have enough time before the election to develop a full plan to present to the voters.
There are only two election dates in 2008 (February and November), and the February election date had recently been moved up by the state legislature for the presidential primary. As a result, the time available prior to the election was constrained.
With the holidays in December, we would really only have four weeks in January to run an information campaign on a complicated referendum question. With the election date coming quickly, we did not have time to discuss details with the City Council because we needed to finalize informational materials for the City newsletter to be mailed in early January.
The St. Clair County Election Office’s deadline for referendum submittals was December 6, so we needed to make a decision on whether to proceed. We did not make the decision lightly, but ultimately we felt that voters should have complete and accurate information before they are asked to vote on such an important issue. We did not believe this could be done in the time allotted before the election so the ballot question was pulled. As a result, staff will take some time to focus on the core stormwater needs in O’Fallon and discuss options with the City Council on where to proceed from here. If the City Council wants to put a utility referendum back on the ballot, the next election date is November 4, 2008, so there is plenty of time to decide.
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