Thread: Farmers Branch - Critics say FB petition tainted

Critics say FB petition tainted

Critics say FB petition tainted
But group seeking vote on immigration issue denies dirty tactics

09:34 AM CST on Saturday, December 9, 2006
By STEPHANIE SANDOVAL / The Dallas Morning News

Some Farmers Branch residents want the city to throw out petitions gathered by a group seeking a public vote on a new city ordinance banning apartments from renting to illegal immigrants.

Let the Voters Decide must turn in more than 700 signatures of registered voters Monday(Dec. 11th) to force the City Council to repeal the ordinance or put it on the ballot May 12, when City Council elections will be held.

Resident Tom Bohmier said volunteers for Let the Voters Decide misled or misinformed voters about the petition's purpose.

"We're going to ask ... [city officials] to review whether or not the petitions should be invalidated ... because of the deceptive practices used to gain the signatures," he said.
Travis Carter, one of the organizers of the petition drive, said the accusations are unfounded.

"This is the most genuine and honest effort I can imagine possible, and it's made up of hundreds of volunteers who are dedicating their time and energy to bring about public debate and discussion on this issue," he said. "Any suggestion otherwise is laughable."
Mr. Carter is treasurer of Let the Voters Decide. He is also president of Carter Public Relations, which works for the Bickel & Brewer Storefront, attorneys who represent resident Guillermo Ramos in an open meetings lawsuit filed against the city Monday.

The petitions can't be thrown out, city attorney Matthew Boyle said: "The only legal way for the city to not consider a valid signature on a petition would be if that individual either deleted their own signature from the petition or filed with the city an affidavit requesting that their signature be removed from the petition."

And that has to happen before the petitions are submitted to the city Monday.

As of Friday afternoon, seven residents had submitted affidavits to have their signatures removed, City Secretary Cindee Peters said. The affidavits do not state the reasons for their decisions.

Petition critics

Christina Bowles said she was told by the people who asked her to sign the petition that it was to be sent to senators to encourage the state to support the actions of Farmers Branch.

The reason for the petition, stated at the top of the signatures, was hidden under the clip on the clipboard, she said.

"My problem was the deception," Ms. Bowles said.

Resident Dave Marshall said he repeatedly asked the people who brought the petition to his house if it was in protest of the ordinance, and he was told repeatedly it was about voting rights before they acknowledged it had to do with the ordinance.

"I had to pull it out of them," Mr. Marshall said. "It was very deceptive. You're not representing what you're trying to get a signature for."

He supports the ordinance, adopted by the City Council on Nov. 13, and said he would support a public vote on it. But he disapproves of the methods being used.

He and others who met at the Blue Star Deli on Thursday night said they were sent an e-mail cautioning them not to be duped by the petition gatherers. They said they didn't know where the e-mail came from.

The Web site www.support farmersbranch.com advises visitors not to sign the petition if they support the City Council's actions on illegal immigration.

Fears of deportation

Mr. Carter, of Let the Voters Decide, said residents have been misled by information from the petition's opponents.

He said some Latino voters have told volunteers working the petition drive that they were warned that if they signed the petition and have illegal immigrants in their family, those relatives would be tracked down and deported.

Both sides say they are operating completely aboveboard.

Mr. Carter said that he has heard the complaints but that no one has given him any specifics on the alleged incidents of misinformation or other unethical tactics. Everything he's heard, he said, has been from anonymous sources.

"Yet here we are defending ourselves and in essence a lot of people from the community that are doing a lot of hard work promoting a vote on this issue," Mr. Carter said.

"It's disappointing to me the lengths some folks are going to limit open discussion and debate on these issues."

Residents who want their names removed from the petition can contact any of the volunteers working the petition drive, go by the group's headquarters at 2704 Valley View Lane or file an affidavit with the city.

Landlords sign up

Meanwhile, the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas is jumping onto the petition bandwagon, encouraging members to get their tenants to sign it.

"We'll be going into the apartment communities themselves and doing the same thing, asking people who are registered voters to sign the petition," said Gerry Henigsman, the association's executive vice president.

"We believe the ordinance is tremendously onerous to our industry. Farmers Branch is telling the multifamily properties ... they are going to be responsible for enforcing immigration law," he said. "That is going to put us in a very untenable situation. It's going to have a real impact on the economic viability of those properties there."

He said some apartment owners and managers have already reported that tenants are not renewing leases because of the city ordinance.

And apartment complexes in surrounding cities are targeting tenants in Farmers Branch, inviting them to relocate.

Edward B. Frankel, chief executive of Management Support, sent a letter to residents of the company's three apartment complexes in Farmers Branch, encouraging them to sign the petition.

"I do not believe that new residents and families who are citizens of the United States should be burdened or involved with the inconvenience of personally controlling immigration," he said.

E-mail ssandoval@dallasnews.com

Complaint against FB council sidelined

The public integrity division of the Dallas County district attorney's office has decided not to pursue a complaint that the Farmers Branch City Council violated open meetings laws by discussing illegal immigration issues behind closed doors and making a decision before getting public input.

Resident Gerald P. Smith had filed the complaint. Assistant District Attorney Ben Stool said in a letter to Mr. Smith that the complaint is "not a prosecutable criminal case."

However, he said that the situation could be re-evaluated later, depending on developments in a civil case filed Monday against the city.

In that case, resident Guillermo Ramos sued the city and City Council members, also alleging the city violated open meetings laws.

Stephanie Sandoval

listening to a local radio show here in dallas today.
two callers called in and said they were told the petition was for the right to sell alcoholic beverages in the city. and one of them said he signed it outside of Kroger and two hours later someone came to his home with the same petition. that is when he was wondering what was really going on.

It's sad that people are dishonest. This petition is a desperate act.

I saw a petition at Farmers Branch on a table outside of city hall, which was deceptive. It was pro-Amnesty, however a local radio station promoted a Anti-Amnesty Petition so the people looking for the latter were ready to sign the former. The guardians of the petition were not going to correct anyone's mistake so some citizens stood guard over the petition and they didn't get very many signatures.

I just heard they did not turn in the petition today. I bet they don't have enough signatures. They have until Wednesday to turn in the petition to the City of Farmers Branch.

Dixie