By Dan Martin
Filed Friday, May 11, 2007 at 8:59 AM
Petitioners from the Gateway Green Alliance have acquired enough signatures to require an audit of the City of St. Louis.
Missouri law requires a number of signatures on such a petition equal 5% of the number of people that voted in the last gubernatorial election - in this case, 7,200 people would suffice. The Greens, however, have collected over 7,500 signatures, and will continue to collect signatures should the petition be challenged, as challenged petitions require more signatures.
The petitioning effort began back in 2006 when the city was unresponsive in answering the group's questions concerning how money for lead poisoning prevention was being spent. The response came only after months of letter writing, and even then the city only supplied data for 28-35% of lead remediation money. For Greens, that is unacceptable.
The Green Alliance is joined in its efforts by the American Federation of Teachers Local 420, the Universal African Peoples Organization, and the Organization for Black Struggle.
1 Comments:
Let me get this straight...
Mayor Slay received millions of dollars in federal aid to eliminate lead poisoning, an extremely serious problem contributing to the health and viability of St. Louis children. All he had to do was hire contractors and get the job done, and hundreds, if not thousands of St. Louis children could have benefited from improved home environments. AND HE DIDN'T DO IT?
This issue ALONE seems enough to question handing over the entire school system to him. What will he do with federal money flowing in to educate all the children in St. Louis?
Perhaps when they find the lead abatement money they'll find the answer to that question too.
5/14/2007 7:35 AM
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