Petition to block Amarillo Civic Center project rejected by city

The city of Amarillo announced this week that a petition submitted Aug. 29 to repeal Ordinance No. 7985, which authorized debt issuance of $260 million for the Amarillo Civic Center Project to renovate and expand the facility, was rejected for not meeting the provisions of the city charter.

Due to the petition not meeting the requirements of the city charter, the petition will not be submitted to the city council. According to these statutes, a valid petition must include several components in order to be certified and forwarded to the city council for consideration. The petition did not include an affidavit of the circulator, which is established in Article II, Section 23 of the city charter as a mandatory element.

Stephanie Coggins, Amarillo city secretary, spoke about her office’s role in the process in which she is independent of the city council in reviewing the certification process.


Coggins - City of Amarillo

“Cities have no ability to depart from state and City Charter requirements for certifying a petition,” Coggins said. “These charter requirements were established by the citizens of Amarillo, and they must be adhered to. If a petition does not include all the required elements, then by law my office is not authorized to submit it to the City Council.”

Coggins said that when the original statement from the referring committee was put out about circulating a petition in early August, her office sent the group a letter outlining the provisions of the Amarillo City Charter and state statutes, which included the affidavit of circulator rules. She said her office started reviewing the petition Aug. 29 to verify registered voter signatures and ensure all necessary elements were in order, including 42 parts.

According to the letter sent to the referring committee of the petition, the city stated:

When asked if this was a matter that could be fixed without the need to restart the gathering of signatures, Coggins emphasized this was not just simply a clerical error that could be fixed after the submission and the process would have to begin anew with a referring committee statement to start a new petition.

Specifying Texas election code and the city charter, Coggins said this was not a matter her office had the discretion to allow amending or supplementing the already filed document. She said her job is to review the information and ensure it conforms to the city charter and Texas election code.

“My job is to protect both the citizens for and against the repeal of the ordinance,” Coggins said. “If I were to submit something to council and it should not have been certified, then that brings that election into question along with its certification. We are protecting the process and the integrity of the process as established.

She said it is important for citizens to know her office is neutral in the matter.

“It’s my job to protect the process and make sure that the rules are followed, “Coggins said. “I stand objective in the process to make sure that the petition follows the rules set forth. No members of the city council or the city manager’s office were part of this review; our office was independent in this matter.”

So while the committee can once again submit a statement for the petition, the city’s next step in the city's civic center project funding battle is scheduled for the first week of October in front of Judge William Sowder for expedited judgment to move forward with financing.

Objecting to the project has been Amarillo businessman Alex Fairly, who will make his case before the judge that the city sought to forgo the will of the voters by using statutes that were not intended for uses of this type.

“We as a council studied this measure and 80% of the council agreed that this issuance was in compliance with the law,” Nelson said.