Another referendum? — Attempt to upend $10M from library
NEW CANAAN — A notice of intent to petition for referendum was filed Thursday with the town clerk’s office to overturn a vote by Town Council to appropriate $10 million for the new $38 million library project.
The petition was filed with the necessary 50 qualifying signatures on Sept. 9 and was confirmed received by the town clerk. That, though, is just the start for what it takes to prompt a referendum, according to the town charter.
Once the intent is filed, the petitioners have 30 days to drum up almost 700 signatures to prompt a referendum. The petition will then be checked to verify it holds the required number of signatures.
The wording of the petition will use the same language as that on the potential ballot crafted by the town clerk.
Though the New Canaan Preservation Alliance (NCPA) has been disappointed by the plans not to preserve the 1913 library in situ, the group did not support this petition for refererendum, according to New Canaan Preservation Alliance President Neele-Banks Stichnoth.
The alliance “took a vote on it a while ago and determined we are not interested in stopping the construction of the new project,” Stichnoth told Hearst on Friday. The alliance currently has an appeal filed about the Planning and Zoning Department’s decision on the extent of the library’s preservation of the 1913 library on its campus. The new library plans currently call for a green space where the disputed portion of the building currently stands.
Stichnoth clarified that there may be members of the alliance who support the petition for referendum, but the NCPA board itself and the Friends of the 1913 Library are not, as she called it, a “distraction” and the entities are “not interested” in stopping the construction of the new library.
Town Council passed the $10 million grant and a new Memorandum of Understanding regarding the 42,642-foot contemporary library by a vote of 10-2 in August. Town Councilmen Penny Young and Cristina Aguirre-Ross abstained.
Town Clerk Claudia Weber said that she “will be preparing a fact sheet as I have done in the past” and “will be speaking with the town attorney as to the language of the question and will have further updates next week.”
The last town referendum, over the summer to overturn the approved Board of Education budget, failed to gather enough overall votes to meet the 2,045 — or 15 percent — of electors required by the charter.
“If a referendum repeals or overrules an action taken by the Town Council which relates to any appropriation or bond issue recommended by the Board of Finance, such recommendation shall be returned to the Board of Finance for reconsideration,” according to the charter.
The Town Council cannot pass an appropriation not recommended by the Board of Finance and can only approve, disapprove or reduce — not increase — the amount of any appropriation, according to the town charter.