AUSTIN, Texas — An Austin organization is suing the city council and mayor after they reportedly approved last-minute changes to the November ballot.
On Thursday, the Save Our Springs (SOS) Alliance held an emergency court hearing to push for a temporary restraining order to stop the city from adding 13 "shady" amendments to the upcoming ballot.
The group believes the council, along with mayor Kirk Watson, purposefully limited public discourse before proposing these changes.
"These amendments, cooked up behind closed doors, are designed to erode transparency and accountability at City Hall," SOS shared in a media release. "The Council hopes you won't notice and just vote "yes," and we're not letting that happen."
One possible change, Proposition H, would make it so that in order to recall a council member, signatures must be gathered from at least 15% or more of qualified voters in a specific district. Currently, the number of signatures needed is 10%.
SOS believes this change would "make it almost impossible to petition a recall election," per the group's website.
By adding these 13 amendments to the ballot, SOS also said Watson and the city violated the Texas Open Meetings Act. Simply put, this act makes it so that statewide government organizations must remain straightforward when working with the public.
SOS said only five minutes of conversation were held during the council's budget meeting Wednesday before the change was decided upon.
The group wants voters to have more advanced notice when it comes to learning about such additions.
Thus, SOS members are pushing Austinites to vote against all 13 propositions. However, they're open to a "yes" vote when it comes to Proposition 1, which allows the city attorney to be chosen by the council. Currently, this role is decided upon by the city manager.
SOS said these changes will be seen at the bottom of the November ballot, and the group encourages Austinites to vote "no."
