Mayor Cole Stanley/Photo by Noah Dawson
A group petitioning for an ordinance seeking to prohibit abortion trafficking obtained enough signatures to move forward, the City of Amarillo confirmed on Thursday morning. However, there may not be enough votes on the council for the ordinance to be passed as presented.
“I don’t feel that the council has three votes that would be in favor of this ordinance as it’s written,” said Mayor Cole Stanley during a press conference.
The council declining to pass the ordinance as written would not automatically trigger an election. Stanley did note that the city attorney, at the request of the council, has drafted an ordinance that could be offered as an alternative proposal in lieu of the petitioned for ordinance.
If a deal can be reached between the petition committee and the council, a vote could then be avoided. “I have had one conversation with two ladies that are very active on that petition committee and they did state that they felt like the committee would entertain an amendment,” Stanley told The Amarillo Pioneer. Stanley then noted, though, that he does not know any “specifics as to what the amendment would look like.”
If a deal cannot be reached, the committee has the right to have the item placed on the ballot. If this happens, it will likely share the November ballot with several city charter amendments, as the city recently kicked off the process to review the charter. Stanley expressed concern about this prospect. “I think whatever gets on this ballot in November needs to be precise, simple, and easy for our community to understand what it will do,” said Stanley. “Yeah, I have a few concerns, but I’m not in control of any of those.”
City Secretary Stephanie Coggins noted that, of the roughly 10,300 signatures submitted, the city was able to verify about 6,300. About “twelve to fourteen” city staff were utilized to verify the signatures. Of the signatures not verified, Coggins noted there were a variety of reasons. Some pages did not have a properly filled out affidavit of circulator, some did not put what county they lived in, while some of the signatures were from people who did not live in the city. Coggins also noted that there was one person who signed but chose to withdraw their signature.
The full live stream of the press conference can be seen below: