I Hope That They Do Appeal…

And that they have to pay the court costs when they lose.

Legal battle expected after Houston declares HERO repeal petition invalid
By Drew Karedes,
KHOU 11 News
August 4, 2014

HOUSTON -- Opponents of Houston's equal rights ordinance are vowing to keep fighting after the city denied their petition. City officials announced Monday that thousands of pages a petition to take down the HERO ordinance are invalid.

According to the city, many of the pages were circulated by people who don't live in Houston. Opponents gathered almost 52,000 signatures and only needed about 17,000. The city says only 15,249 signatures are valid.

It is going to cost the city a lot of taxpayer’s dollars to defend the case in court. The right wings conservatives just can’t admit defeat, cannot admit that the majority of people do not feel the way that they do anymore. And it is going to probably cost the city over hundred thousand dollars in legal fees to prove it that they are right in denying the petition in court. The Houston Area Pastor Council should be held accountable for the court cost

The Houston charter list the requirement for a petition and according the City Council Houston Area Pastor Council  did not those requirements. KTRK had this to say about the HERO petition,

"The charter requirements are in place to ensure a fair and credible process absent of fraud," Houston City Attorney Dave Feldman said. "In this instance ... this petition filed to repeal the HERO ordinance, there are simply too many documents with irregularities and problems to overlook. The petition is simply invalid, there is no other conclusion."

Feldman says a successful petition must contain at least 10 percent of the total number of votes cast during the last mayoral election. For this specific petition, a total of 17,269 signatures were needed. Feldman says the number of valid signatures submitted came to only 15,247.

And the opposition claims,

"All we are asking is for the public to have their say," said Pastor Dave Welch, head of the Houston Area Pastors Council and a driving force behind the petitions. "Unfortunately, this administration has once again excluded people. Complete lack of integrity. Which we're not surprised either, so we're going to pursue legal remedies and we'll see what form that takes." Welch and his supporters are expected to file a lawsuit. The exact date is unclear, though it could come as early as end of the week.

Legal experts say that their only option is to take it to federal court to appeal the requirements of city charter,

"To ask the federal courts to rule the city's requirements that circulators be registered voters unconstitutional," Jones [Mark Jones, with Rice University's Political Science department] said.