Press Advisory for Immediate Release

TO: CITY COUNCIL & MAYORAL CANDIDATES

OPPOSE: Senate Bill 690 – The RECA Anti-Petition/Anti-Democracy Bill

WHERE: MAYORAL DEBATE THIS SATURDAY, 4 TO 6 PM @ OPAL DIVINE’S, S. Congress

AUSTIN, Texas – March 12, 2009 – ChangeAustin.org founder, Brian Rodgers, is calling on all City Council and Mayoral candidates to work together to oppose Senate Bill 690, Senator Jeff Wentworth’s “anti-petition” bill at their candidate debate this Saturday, 4 to 6 pm at Opal Divine’s on South Congress.

Rodgers said SB 690, if passed, would more than double petition signatures for citizen initiated charter amendments and would thereby, “stifle public participation when the public is more excited than ever about engaging in the political process. SB 690 is the ‘really sore winner’ response from the Real Estate Council of Austin (RECA) who is pushing this bad bill as retribution for the fact that Austin voters almost passed the Prop 2, aka the Stop Domain Subsidies amendment last November. RECA’s selfish drive to shut down Austin’s activist community arrogantly harms the petition rights of the citizens of 345 other Texas cities, if passed.”

Linda Curtis, one of the founders of ChangeAustin.org and an expert on petition access issues in Texas said, “Petition access has become an increasing problem throughout the state due to anti-petition practices by malls, grocery chains and even college campuses. Raising the petition requirements will severely inhibit public participation in a process that 346 Texas cities have enjoyed for many decades.”

ChangeAustin.org opposes SB 690 because the group knows first-hand how difficult it can be to gather the current number of required signatures. In 2007-2008, it functioned as “Stop Domain Subsidies” to push for an Austin city charter amendment to ban subsidies to retail developments, including the $65 million slated for a luxury shopping mall known as The Domain.

Currently, Texas law requires petitioners calling for a charter amendment of a home-rule municipality to gather signatures from 5% of “qualified voters” with a 20,000-signature cap whichever number is the smaller in order to get on the ballot.

SB 690 would require such a petition to gather signatures from 10% of “registered voters” with no numerical cap on signatures. This would effectively more double required signatures in Austin and more than quadruple the signatures in Houston.

SB 960 can be found at:

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/html/SB00690I.htm

About ChangeAustin.org

ChangeAustin.org is a mix of local activists (Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, small “I” independents) and owners of local home grown businesses such as Michael Parker, owner of Opal Divine’s and Tim League, co-owner of The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. The group is dedicated to bringing voters and local businesses lacking representation in our local government back to City Hall. More information can be found on the ChangeAustin.org blog at http://www.ChangeAustin.org, or by calling 383-8484.

ChangeAustin.org

CONTACT: Linda Curtis

2153 S. Lamar #205 • Austin, TX 78704

512-383-8484 • 512-657-2089