Congrats!!!! Casino Free Philadelphia petitions were accepted by the City Clerk and the City Solicitor's office, this means that:
1) This legally-binding referendum has been looked at by the city's lawyers and is approved, from their perspective, to be voted on by Philadelphians (legally speaking, something closer to, "with no certainty can the City Solicitor say this is not in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution or laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania");
2) Now starts the 7-day period when casinos could challenge the City Clerk's acceptance of our signatures, and try to stop voters from having a say on casinos; we suspect they may go this route;
3) Today Council president Anna Verna introduced our referendum and a hearing is scheduled for it -- March 2nd at 10:00am.
Therefore, the actions to take:
1) Write to all your Councilpersons to support the referendum when it comes to a vote; let them know we are watching them and will watch carefully their votes. (Note that at this point at councilpersons have been briefed and have received letters and calls from us about this issue.) You can see the status of councilmembers (and click to write to them one at a time) at: http://www.casinofreephila.org/ Or send faxes to all your city councilmembers automatically from Hallwatch.org
2) Very important: Join us for the referendum's hearing on March 2nd at 10am, room 400. We will not go as long as we did last time, but plan to be there to show our community's support for passage of this referendum. What: City Council hearing on our referendum Where: Room 400, City Hall When: Friday, March 2nd at 10:00am
3) We are working on our structure, to be more transparent internally and to be better at helping people plug-in to our campaigns. We are having a major strategy retreat on March 3rd -- please come and find out how you can get more involved and help us tighten up as we move into the next phase of our campaign work to protect our neighborhoods! What: Strategy Retreat Where: TBA When: Saturday, March 3rd from 10am to 2pm (lunch provided)
And media for the day
KYW (2/22): DiCicco Fires Back at Philly’s Proposed Slots Parlors
1) This legally-binding referendum has been looked at by the city's lawyers and is approved, from their perspective, to be voted on by Philadelphians (legally speaking, something closer to, "with no certainty can the City Solicitor say this is not in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution or laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania");
2) Now starts the 7-day period when casinos could challenge the City Clerk's acceptance of our signatures, and try to stop voters from having a say on casinos; we suspect they may go this route;
3) Today Council president Anna Verna introduced our referendum and a hearing is scheduled for it -- March 2nd at 10:00am.
Therefore, the actions to take:
1) Write to all your Councilpersons to support the referendum when it comes to a vote; let them know we are watching them and will watch carefully their votes. (Note that at this point at councilpersons have been briefed and have received letters and calls from us about this issue.) You can see the status of councilmembers (and click to write to them one at a time) at: http://www.casinofreephila.org/ Or send faxes to all your city councilmembers automatically from Hallwatch.org
2) Very important: Join us for the referendum's hearing on March 2nd at 10am, room 400. We will not go as long as we did last time, but plan to be there to show our community's support for passage of this referendum. What: City Council hearing on our referendum Where: Room 400, City Hall When: Friday, March 2nd at 10:00am
3) We are working on our structure, to be more transparent internally and to be better at helping people plug-in to our campaigns. We are having a major strategy retreat on March 3rd -- please come and find out how you can get more involved and help us tighten up as we move into the next phase of our campaign work to protect our neighborhoods! What: Strategy Retreat Where: TBA When: Saturday, March 3rd from 10am to 2pm (lunch provided)
And media for the day
KYW (2/22): DiCicco Fires Back at Philly’s Proposed Slots Parlors
Philadelphia Daily News (2/22): Anti-casino forces closer to getting spot on ballot
Philadelphia Inquirer (2/22): Public vote on casinos is discussed
The Evening Bulletin (2/22): Council Weighs Casinos As Neighborhoods Protest
Metro (2/22): Casino opponents air their concerns
The referendum also got mentioned by Fox 29 and WHYY.
And congratulations team. People did not expect us to get this far (heck, many of us did not always expect to get this far). It's each of us playing our part together that's going to make this work.
If you have time, please write letters to the editor to support the referendum and clarify some of the reporter's factually incorrect information. Namely, this ours is a legally binding referendum and, while some may claim it will be trumped by the state, this is not a certainty and we believe untrue. Our referendum was written with the utmost care to be balanced, fair, and uphold a legal challenge.
Hope to see you all next Saturday.
Daniel Hunter, Anne Dicker, and Jethro Heiko
And congratulations team. People did not expect us to get this far (heck, many of us did not always expect to get this far). It's each of us playing our part together that's going to make this work.
If you have time, please write letters to the editor to support the referendum and clarify some of the reporter's factually incorrect information. Namely, this ours is a legally binding referendum and, while some may claim it will be trumped by the state, this is not a certainty and we believe untrue. Our referendum was written with the utmost care to be balanced, fair, and uphold a legal challenge.
Hope to see you all next Saturday.
Daniel Hunter, Anne Dicker, and Jethro Heiko
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