SOROLA STOPS PETITION, SAYS CITY LISTENED TO PEOPLE

By Juan Montoya

Saying that the Brownsville City Commission had listened to the voice of the people, Moses Sorola said that he would stop the petition to force the city to hold an election on the proposed $9.4 million issuance of certificates of obligation.
The commissioners on Tuesday voted to exclude $3.13 million from the issuance on a vote of five to one, with commissioner Ricardo Longoria conveniently absent.
Those voting to exclude the additional money for the Charlie Atkinson Sports Park were Melissa Zamora (who made the motion), Rose Gowen (who seconded it), and Anthony Troiani, Edward Camarillo and Mayor Pat Ahumada.
Atkinson was the lone vote in support of the additional money for the park. So far, as the local daily has reported, more than $33 million has been spent on the park. He left in a huff after the vote Tuesday night.
"We are going to have to stop the petition because now that the money for the sports park has been removed, we would have to redo the wording on the petition and that would mean we would have to start the process all over again," Sorola said. "We were working our way to 2,000 signatures already. I think the city commissioners realized that the people didn't want to continue throwing money at the park anymore."
Sorola said that he and the supporters of the petition would continue to look at the actions of the commissioners as they whittle down the items in what originally started out as a $21 million issuance proposal.
"We don't have anything about using the funds for streets and other improvements," he said. "We are not ready to claim victory, yet. But all of those who signed can take some satisfaction from knowing that their participation made this possible. Hopefully, the city commission will listen to the people in the future and avoid this kind of situation."
Sorola's movement included scores of volunteers scouring the city neighborhoods for signatures of registered voters. He estimated that they would need about 4,000 votes to force the city to hold an election on the issuance. Additionally, he ran a petition form in the local newspaper and he said that had generated a good number of responses from people who mailed them in to his office.
The petition movement had until July 19 to gather the signatures. Sorola said he had already had a standby plan to gather funds to file a lawsuit if necessary.
Sunrise Mall officials and grocery and department stores such as HEB and Wal-Mart declined to allow the petition workers to solicit support for the collection of signatures deeming them "too controversial."
"I think this petition drive accomplished its objective: to have the city commissioners listen to the people of the city before they encumber them with debt," Sorola said.