February 10, 2003

By Mark D. Owen

Owosso, Michigan

mark_0066@hotmail.com

An old cliché states, “You can’t beat city hall.” I beg to differ. Not only can city hall be beaten but also it often makes moves that open itself to defeat. Local governments regularly make unpopular moves against private property, which provide opportunities to protect property rights. These are the opportunities wherein a single activist can bring about victory. When local governments enact policies with little public support or even outright hostility toward the policy, that is the time to act.

The time to act means exactly that. It does not mean simply complaining or writing emails to your friends, although email has a powerful place in activism. It means organizing. It means creating an organization to overwhelm your opposition.

What constitutes a good issue? There is a lot of gray area here, but here are some tips. If you seem to be the only one who is upset by a new ordinance, it is probably not a winnable issue. Trying to stir up concern where none exists is a very difficult process. Even when people are upset it may require a great deal of prodding to move them to act. A good issue is one where a number of people are publicly voicing their resentment regarding the latest assault on their property rights.

One big advantage in local issues is that many people are only half-paying attention and the concerted effort of one individual can be the difference between victory and defeat. Council and township meetings are usually poorly attended and many elected local government officials get most of their information from city bureaucrats, and may know little of the displeasure of city residents. A well-organized effort can often succeed in this environment.

In Owosso, we had just such an issue. The Owosso (Michigan) City Council had just created a new Historic District. This action upset many people. A vocal core was willing to move to overturn the new ordinance. It was a good start.

The task ahead was daunting. Each city’s requirements to get a referendum on the ballot are different, but in Owosso we had to get 15% of registered voters to sign the referendum petition. That does not count all those invalid signatures that one will undoubtedly collect along the way. Most cities seem to have lower thresholds, but regardless of the necessary number of signatures needed, this is the most difficult task in overturning a new ordinance.

We had 60 days to get 1562 signatures. It was January and we had the choice of either beginning immediately or waiting a couple months for warmer weather to make collecting signatures a bit easier. We opted to begin in January to keep up the momentum. Keeping volunteers motivated can be a difficult task.

It was slow going at first. We began by going door to door, though many of our volunteers seemed unwilling to brave the Michigan cold. We initially set weekly goals because at the end of the day we needed 1562. During February, we made progress, but not enough. It began to appear as if we would fall short. The combination of cold weather and lower than expected participation placed the referendum at risk.

Several things happened toward the end of February: The weather began to warm a little, crucial volunteers realized that more effort from them was needed and we began to change tactics. Previously, most of our effort had been going neighborhood by neighborhood, house to house. We could get about 15 to 20 signatures an hour if things were going well. We did this because we could be sure that the majority of signatories were registered voters within the city of Owosso. The problem was we were running out of time and we needed a more efficient method of collecting signatures.

We switched tactics and began collecting signatures in front of the city post office and at other public locations within the city. The advantages were that less walking was required and we could get more signatures in a shorter time. The disadvantage was that we had to carefully ask whether the voter voted within the city limits or not. It was easy to end up getting many signatures from outside the city. We did the best we could to limit non-Owosso signatures, but we ended up with many.

When we handed in signatures on March 20th we had over 1600, but we knew that with invalid signatures we would be short. Luckily, we found an opening in the referendum rules. If there were sufficient signatures submitted, ten days were allowed to replace the invalid signatures with valid signatures. We ended up about 300 short. Of course we were not going to fall short after coming so far. We submitted more than enough 10 days later. The bottom line is that when we had our backs against the wall we could quickly get a large number of signatures.

We learned many things about what to do and expect in the collection of signatures. Even with the best of efforts, you will get many invalid signatures. Many people are unsure of whether they are registered to vote or do not want to admit they are not. People also can easily be confused about where they are registered to vote or they simply do not listen closely when you ask them where they reside. We ended up with many signatures from outside the city. It is best to have at least a 20-25% cushion beyond your threshold of necessary signatures. Even this could prove too low, but 20% is a good rule of thumb.

We had shown that when we had an ordinance violating property rights with a lot of public opposition, we could undertake actions to get a referendum on the ballot to overturn the ordinance. A small group of activists were able to organize the effort to collect signatures. Even with all our planning, we had to work very hard to achieve our goal. You must be willing to undertake the effort to protect your property rights. If you don’t, who will? And keep in mind that you can beat City Hall!