WHAT’S NEXT
The City Council will decide whether to vote to repeal the ordinance. If it’s not repealed, the issue will be placed on the August 2014 ballot.
Petition against domestic partner benefit ordinanceA conservative group seeking to overturn a new domestic partner benefits ordinance has already managed to effectively stop enrollment planned for the spring.
The petition drive mounted by Mark West and other opponents has also set the stage for a potential public vote on the controversial ordinance that made Chattanooga the third city in Tennessee to award benefits to the gay and straight domestic partners of city employees.
Hamilton County Election Commission officials stopped counting at noon Tuesday after certifying that the local political action committee Citizens for Government Accountability and Transparency had acquired the minimum 4,500 signatures needed to force the City Council to revisit its November decision or allow the measure to go to referendum.
But the total number of signatures collected, West said, was more than 10,000. That’s more than half the number of voters that showed up at the polls in March to vote Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke into office.