BY SALINA POST
The City of Salina announced this afternoon that a petition to repeal sections of the Salina City Code related to Breed Specific Regulations fell short of the required number of valid signatures needed for consideration.
On Monday, September 23, 2024, the City received a referendum petition that would require the Governing Body to either pass an ordinance to repeal sections of the Salina City Code related to Breed Specific Regulations or call for a special election for voter consideration of the ordinance.
For the petition to be valid, the Saline County Election Officer must validate the signatures in accordance with K.S.A. 25-3601. The petition was delivered to the Saline County Election Officer on Tuesday, September 24, 2024.
According to K.S.A. 12-3013, the petition would need to be signed by electors equal to 25% of those who voted in the preceding regular City election, requiring 1,391 signatures in this instance.
On Monday, September 30, 2024, the Saline County Election Officer certified that the required number of signatures was not met. Of the 1,814 signatures submitted, only 1,369 were accepted, with 445 signatures being rejected for reasons including unregistered voters, mismatched names or signatures, canceled voter registrations, and incorrect districts. This left the petition 22 signatures short of the required number.
Under K.S.A. 25-3602, the petitioner is not permitted to submit additional signatures to make up the shortfall. Therefore, the petition will not move forward, and the ordinance related to Breed Specific Regulations will remain in place.
In a joint statement, Debrah Corrales and Tyler Sartain, both advocates against the ban, said they would not give up their efforts.
“ While we are disheartened by the shortage of 22 signatures we don’t plan on giving up. We will be looking at all options regarding getting BSL repealed in Salina.
There were 445 names that were removed due to either not being registered to vote, outside of the voting district, or not legible to read. We will be asking for recount and hopefully we can see if they’d be willing to do it. For the citizens we need you to email the city commission and demand a special election vote it’s the right thing to do. The citizens want this issue resolved and there’s five people standing in your way of getting the ban lifted.
The commission believes that if they lift the ban they would be held responsible if this breed of dog hurts someone which they cannot be held liable in any way. If the commission stays silent and does not act to put this up for a public vote they are complacent in infringing on your rights, they’re ok with the city taking your dogs away, and fine with them being euthanized. As long as this law stands your rights are being infringed upon and your dog’s lives are in danger. There have been 56 BSL repeals in Kansas due to this law not working. Our animal shelter cannot house all these dogs for long and we fear that euthanasia will make a comeback if this law isn’t lifted.
It’s up to you the citizens to act and help these dogs. Contact the commission now and let them know you want change!
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Sincerely,
Deb & Tyler