Petition Gets More Than 900 Signatures

Weeks of door-knocking, volunteering and gathering signatures appears to have paid off.

Gulfport resident Frank Verdino turned in more than 900 signatures to the City Clerk Thursday to add a referendum question to the March 13, 2012, ballot.

Ogranizers want residents to decide the fate of the dispatch center, not the Council alone. They spent weeks gathering signatures to make that vote happen.

"I think we did everything we needed to do and everything we could do," Verdino said.

If at least 862 of the 948 signatures are validated by the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections, Gulfport voters will decide whether the Gulfport Police Department should become a chartered department.

Here is the "question" listed on the petition:

We, the undersigned registered electors of the city of Gulfport, Pinellas County Florida find that it is in the public interest to amend the Charter of the City of Gulfport, Florida to make: i) The Gulfport Police Department a chartered Department.

How could that save the dispatch center?

In a previous story, Verdino explained that he and his supporters believe that by adding the Gulfport Police Department as a chartered department, any "major changes," such as outsourcing communications, would have to be decided by a public vote, not a vote by the Gulfport City Council.

"If you sign it, you’re saying you want the police department, as is, to become part of the charter," Verdino says, including dispatch.

What's next?

City Clerk Lesley DeMuth will make copies and drop off the original signatures to be verified by the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections. DeMuth says a copy will be available at her office for the public to view.

DeMuth says 862 verified signatures are needed because that is 10 percent of the registered voters in Gulfport from the last city elections.

As of the March 2011 municipal elections, there were 8,619 registered voters in Gulfport.

If the minimum number of signatures are verified, the referendum question will be brought to Gulfport City Council and the wording of the question will have to be adopted; it will likely be listed on the agenda as an ordinance.