CRG Network to Assist Direct Legislation Petition Drive to Require Referendum on Milwaukee Streetcar Project

Milwaukee citizens, activists, businesses, and politicians in an effort to pass direct legislation requiring citizen approval of taxpayer-financed rail projects. At the request of the city-wide group United for Milwaukee, attorneys representing CRG drafted the following direct legislation ordinance.

Prior to the start of any physical construction of any municipally financed (in whole or in part) rail transit system requiring a capital expenditure of $20 million or more in municipal funds or funds guaranteed by or supported by an express or implicit promise of the City, whether or not such promise is legally enforceable, the Common Council shall submit to the electorate a binding referendum for approval of the construction of the system. Failure of the referendum shall preclude the City from proceeding with or otherwise permitting construction of such system or any part thereof using any City funds or revenues. The wording of the referendum shall provide the specific purpose, location, and the total estimated construction costs of the system, including an estimate of the costs to be funded directly or indirectly by the City. Nothing in this section shall be construed to preclude the City from exercising its role in the engineering, planning or design of an urban rail transit system.

CRG is providing close technical and logistical support to collect the over 31,000 petition signatures required to enact the direct legislation ordinance similar to the support it provided Milwaukee County citizens during the Ament recall effort that produced almost 182,000 petition signatures in less than 30 days.

CRG is hosting a kick-off rally on Tuesday, January 6th at Serb Hall, 5101 W. Oklahoma Avenue, between 5PM and 7PM to recruit and train petition circulators, provide additional information, and answer questions. 10-minute training sessions will begin at 5PM and continue throughout the rally. Blank petition forms will be available for pick-up.
Additionally, CRG is soliciting parties interested in providing locations for citizens to pick-up blank petitions and drop-off completed petitions.

Online information, instructions, and downloadable petition forms are available at the CRG Network website at www.crgnetwork.com. Interested parties can also contact CRG by e-mail at crg@crgnetwork.com or by phone on the CRG Network hotline at 414-801-0800.

For more information contact CRG Network Executive Administrator Chris Kliesmet at 414-429-9501 or Field Operations Director Orville Seymer at 414-573-8709.

 

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.