According to a preliminary count, the number of signatures collected within the petitions totals 1,147, according to public records obtained by Dayton Daily News.
The Montgomery County BOE stipulates the minimum number of required signatures for this referendum is 2,122.
The resident-run PAC was created by Kevin Carter, Daniel White, Joshua King, Leslie Mosley and Steven Zbinden.
The group, along with volunteers, collected the more than 1,000 signatures in less than a week, according to petition supporter Janell Smith, who assisted in the collection.
Smith shared in a Facebook post on Wednesday that the PAC was given just four days to collect the required signatures.
“Traditionally, voters have the opportunity to sign a petition within a 30-day period of the time legislation passed, but for some reason that I don’t understand, we were given a total of four days for this petition,” Smith wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
But Mayor Jeff Gore challenged this claim, asserting the PAC could have begun signature collection much earlier.
The PAC had 30 days from the time the annexation was approved by city council on July 22 to submit a petitioner’s statement to the clerk of council informing the city of its intent to create a referendum.
The signature collection period cannot begin until a petitioner’s statement has been submitted, Gore stressed.
However, Gore said this statement was not submitted by the PAC until Friday, Aug. 16.
“They could have filed their petitioner’s statement as soon as July 23, the day after the annexation was approved by council, which would have allowed the full 30 days for signature collection,” Gore said. “The time it took them to form a PAC and submit a petitioner’s statement is on them and has nothing to do with the city.”
PAC member Carter said earlier this week the point of the proposed referendum was to allow voters to weigh in on what has been a contested annexation process instead of giving city council sole discretion of approval.
The land in question lies immediately north of the Carriage Trails subdivision in southern Miami County, just south of U.S. 40 and west of Brandt Pike (Ohio 201).
The annexation is the first step in a broader project to expand the Carriage Trails neighborhood, with hundreds of new homes and apartments planned.
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