Residents Warn Higher Signature Threshold Will Hamper Citizen Initiatives After Election-Timing Change

Multiple residents used citizen comment time on Aug. 18 to urge council to revisit a recent decision to move municipal elections to even years, saying the change has a significant side effect: an increase in the number of signatures required for citizen-initiated actions. A speaker who described the previous requirement said an initiative used to require roughly 10% of the votes cast in the last mayoral election (about 400 signatures in 2023). Because turnout for mayoral elections will now be much higher in even years, that 10% threshold could rise to about 2,500 signatures, a commenter said, which they characterized as a barrier to civic participation.