Printing errors keep strong-mayor proposal off Tacoma ballot | Sea Times

Friday, August 08, 2003 - Page updated at 06:18 A.M.

Printing errors keep strong-mayor proposal off Tacoma ballot

By The Associated Press

TACOMA — Printing errors have knocked off the ballot an initiative to drop the city manager position in favor of a strong-mayor system, a move spawned by turmoil after the police chief fatally shot his wife and committed suicide.
Petitions for the initiative, prepared by a group called Time for A Change, were inadvertently printed in two different forms, and neither was signed by the minimum 7,029 registered voters, Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy said Thursday.

Despite the urging of backers to put the measure to a vote Nov. 4 anyway, Mayor Bill Baarsma said there "appeared to be no interest by the City Council" to do so.

"If they're not going to go out and collect more signatures and there's been no interest by any council members, for all intents and purposes it's dead," Baarsma said.

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