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Commission reviews proposal to lower petition threshold for referendums, tables the change
Summary
Commissioner John Levin proposed lowering the citizen-referendum signature threshold from 8% to 5%, reducing required petitioners and extending collection time; commissioners voted to table discussion.
Commissioner John Levin presented a proposed amendment to Section 4-10 of the Norwalk charter that would change the city—s citizen-referendum petition rules. Levin proposed lowering the signature threshold from 8% of registered voters to 5%, reducing the required number of initiating electors from five to four, increasing the filing fee from $25 to $200, and extending the signature-collection window from 25 days to 45 days.
Levin said the current requirements make citizen referendums almost impossible in practice: the commission recorded 65,468 registered voters and Levin calculated that an 8% threshold would require roughly 5,239 signatures; a 5% threshold would lower that requirement to about 3,274 signatures. He argued the change would make direct democracy more reachable without removing the city—s representative institutions.
Several commissioners questioned whether the change would be consequential in practice. Some said collecting thousands of valid, notarized signatures is difficult and that citizen referendums are already rare; others worried that the provision, if placed on a ballot alongside other charter changes, could become a campaign issue that hurt the commission—s broader package. After discussion, the commission voted to table the referendum-procedure proposal.
No charter language was amended at this meeting.
