Starkville residents will not vote in November on whether to change the city’s form of government.
The Student Association and Greater Starkville Development Partnership failed to collect enough signatures to bring the issue to a November vote.
Representatives of the groups said they are still collecting signatures, however, and that they want the issue on the ballot for a special election in December.
The SA has collected about 1,200 signatures, SA governmental affairs chairman Simon Bailey said. The Partnership has collected another 1,000, Partnership CEO David Thornell said.
The Student Association originally planned to collect about 3,000 signatures by walking door-to-door around Starkville, asking city residents to sign. They could not muster enough manpower to collect all 3,000 signatures because SA members were busy with a number of other projects, governmental affairs chairman Simon Bailey said.
“We haven’t been able to canvass as much as I thought we were going to,” Bailey said.
Bailey said that the SA is still collecting signatures, but that they are through walking door-to-door.
Thornell, whose organization has spearheaded the effort to change Starkville’s form of government, said that they are still asking members of the partnership to urge employees, friends and customers to sign the petition.
“We’ve still got the time and the energy,” he said. “We’re gonna get it done.”
The petition lacks about 1,000 signatures. “We’re gonna close that gap,” Thornell said. “We hope to have it on the ballot the first week of December.”
If the issue goes to vote, residents will decide whether to change Starkville’s mayor/board of aldermen, or “weak mayor,” form of government or change to a mayor/city council, or “strong mayor,” form.
In a “strong mayor” form of government, councilmen make policy and leave the details of day-to-day city business up to the mayor to act on.
With Starkville’s current form of government, aldermen are collectively more powerful than the mayor and vote on city business. Aldermen can override the mayor’s veto with a two-thirds vote.
Bailey said the experience has been encouraging. “If I had it to do all over again, I’d do it again-absolutely,” he said.
“I am optimistic about what we as students are able to accomplish,” he said. “Our voice can be heard. That’s a positive thing.”