How Sherrill's permissive referendum and voting thresholds shape the pool decision

City staff and commissioners described the legal mechanisms that determine whether the project moves forward by commission vote or returns to voters via permissive referendum. The staff member explained the local finance requirement that borrowing requires a 0.667 vote of the board (four votes) and that a group opposed to the project can collect signatures equal to 20% of the last gubernatorial-election voters to force a permissive referendum within a 15-day window.