The Student Association collected more than a quarter of the signatures they need this week to force a vote on changing Starkville’s form of government.
The first two days of the petition drive yielded about 860 signatures of its goal of 3,000, governmental affairs chairman Simon Bailey said.
If the SA collects 3,000 valid signatures by early October, Starkville citizens will vote on whether to change the form of government to a mayor-council, or “strong mayor” form.
The city currently has a mayor and board of aldermen.
Bailey said from 40 to 50 members of the SA collected signatures around Starkville Tuesday and from 60 to 70 Wednesday. They spent about four hours collecting the signatures, he said.
Bailey said they will continue the petition drive for the next two weeks until they have enough signatures to present to the mayor and board of aldermen.
Mayor Pro Tempore Frank Davis said that if the signatures are received and verified in time, the board of aldermen will set a date for the election, probably in November either on or around the date of the presidential election.
SA President Adam Telle was one of the people walking door-to-door Tuesday and Wednesday. He said he got a positive response from most of the people he talked to.
“The thing that absolutely baffled me the most was how receptive the Starkville community was to students,” Telle said. “Everybody greeted us with a very open mind.”
Telle said that about 85 percent of the people he talked to agreed to sign the petition. Even some people in favor of keeping the mayor/board of aldermen form of government signed, he said.
Telle has maintained that though the SA is collecting the majority of the signatures needed to force a vote on issue, his organization is not in favor of one form of government or the other.
The process will stimulate dialogue on which form of government is best for Starkville, he said. That dialogue will serve to educate Starkvillians on the matter, he added.
Other methods might not be as effective, he said. “We could go out and pass out fliers about the government all day long, but the only way that the voters of Starkville are going to hear about the thing to the level they need to is if it’s brought to a vote.”
The petitioners passed out fliers detailing the pros and cons of both forms of government.
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.
The Greater Starkville development partnership is the group spearheading the effort to change the form of government. CEO David Thornell said last week that the SA would receive a payment, possibly monetary, for their effort in the petition drive.
Telle said that the decision to help with the petition drive was made solely by members of the SA. The GSDP only offered to boost funding for SA events after he and Bailey approached GSDP members and offered the SA’s help in the petition drive, he said.
In addition to more doorr-to-door soliciting, Bailey said he and Telle will ask several campus groups to sign the petition.
Telle said that in the process of collecting signatures Tuesday and Wednesday, the SA registered about 150 people to vote.