Brenda Hixson receives 1,634 signatures petitioning Chattanooga’s same-sex partner benefit ordinance from Mark West, president of Citizens for Government Accountability and Transparency, at the Hamilton County Election Commission on Monday, November 25, 2013.
Petition against domestic partner benefit ordinance
Today is the deadline for a local conservative group to submit enough signatures to force a public vote on whether Chattanooga city employees’ gay or straight unmarried partners should receive health insurance and other benefits.
Mark West of the local PAC Citizens for Government Accountability and Transparency and president of the local tea party said he believes he will have at least 6,000 signatures by this afternoon.
“We’re doing better than we planned,” he said Monday.
If the group has the required number , about 4,500 signatures from registered voters who are city residents, City Council members will be asked to repeal the domestic partner benefit ordinance they approved two weeks ago. If officials won’t repeal the ordinance, the Hamilton County Election Commission is required to let the public vote by referendum in the August 2014 primary election.
So far Charlotte Mullis-Morgan, the county administrator of elections, said she has verified nearly 2,000 signatures, almost half of what is needed.