Potts ends City Hall petition drive; says she's made her point: 'City should have told us what our rights are'

CEDAR RAPIDS - Kathy Potts has given up her City Hall petition drive.

Potts, an unsuccessful candidate for City Council last fall, on Monday said the petitions for which she had acquired some signatures over the weekend all are null and void because she did not have the correct wording on the petitions. As a result, she's given up the effort.

Potts had set out last Friday to try to obtain 2,353 signatures needed to force the City Council to hold a public referendum before the council sells $17 million in city bonds to help pay for a new $50-million Event Center.

The council has said it needs to show the U.S. Department of Commerce proof it will use local dollars on the new Event Center convention facility before the federal agency is willing to give the city a $35-million grant for the project. However, the council did not spend any time informing the public that state law allows residents to collect signatures for a so-called reverse referendum if they believe citizens should weigh in on the $17 million in local spending.

“It would have been a heck of a lot easier if the city would have told us what our rights were,” Potts said Monday.