Atlantic Beach – An effort to collect signatures for a petition for a voter referendum to reject the recently approved human rights ordinance failed to gather enough signatures to get it on the ballot.
Supporters of this movement had 20 days from the Aug. 11 decision by Atlantic Beach City Commission to collect 2,305 signatures, 25 percent of the city’s voters, in order for the ordinance to be placed on the November ballot.
Don Peters is an organizer of the effort for a voter referendum for the HRO. He would not say exactly how many signatures were collected, according to The Florida Times-Union, but he said it would have been enough if the city followed the “10 percent of voters” standard which is used by many other cities statewide.
The HRO is still not in the clear, as the City Commission will be meeting Sept. 8 to reconsider the HRO and amend it. That request came from Commissioner Jonathan Daughtery.
The HRO was passed Aug. 11 unanimously with a 4-0 vote. Commissioner Jimmy Hill was absent at the meeting when they voted on the HRO, who requested to hold the agenda item until he could attend the meeting to vote on the ordinance. The City Commission discussed at an Aug. 25 meeting Commissioner Daughtery’s request to reconsider the HRO.
The HRO has been brought up in some way at 14 commission meetings and/or workshops since its inception November 2013. Both Commissioners Daughtery and Hill have been opposed to the measure since then. Commissioner Hill has concerns with the HRO and the effects it will have on local businesses. Commissioner Daughtery said he only voted for the HRO Aug. 11 so he could bring the ordinance back up for reconsideration.
A meeting is scheduled Sept. 8 to take up the issue of reconsidering the HRO.
