Muskego Petition Returned As Flawed

The City of Muskego has returned a petition for direct legislation that seeks a referendum on the $3.55 million purchase of the Little Muskego Lake parcels along Janesville Road, calling them flawed, however the group that filed it has 10 days to fix the issue.

Sharon Mueller, finance director for the city, determined the petition was "insufficient and not in proper form" because a proposed resolution or ordinance was not attached to it as required by state statutes.

The certificate of insufficiency stated, "If the paragraph appearing at the top of the Petition is intended to be a resolution, the words, 'BE IT RESOLVED that' must be added to the beginning of the paragraph."

Mueller did confirm that the petition contained more than the required valid signatures, which was about 1,800, or 15% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election.

The group that filed the petition, Muskego for Ethical Government, said it will correct the petition and return it to the city by Friday, ahead of the 10-day deadline to fix the error.

The group's organizer, Lorie Oliver, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she thought the petition, which is signed by 3,409 residents, was fine as originally submitted, but would attach the  resolution or ordinance to the pages that were originally filed.

What's next?

If the petition is corrected and it's certified sufficient, it will be sent to the council, which then would have 30 days to adopt the action requested in the petition. If it does not act within 30 days, a referendum would be scheduled on the resolution contained in the petition.

However, it has not been determined yet whether the direct legislation petition can stop the purchase, which was initiated before the petition was filed.