Below is the text from a post by Mark Lee Dickson, founder of Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn. We have joined with him to fight for Lindale to become a sanctuary city. Below is the unedited text from his Facebook post (quotes added):
“It has been a busy week in the great city of Lindale, Texas (pop. 6,730). On Tuesday, January 4th, 2022, Lindale residents went before their city with a simple ask: Outlaw abortion in Lindale, Texas.
This was not the first time Lindale’s Mayor and City Council had heard this request. Two years ago today, on January 7th, 2020, citizens first approached their city’s leaders about outlawing abortion. Three meetings later, on February 18th the Mayor and Council decided against the measure on the recommendation of their city attorney.
Since two years had passed and a total of 39 cities in Texas had passed the measure the residents of Lindale were hoping the response would be different – especially since their city attorney’s arguments against the ordinance had not aged well. While the residents of Lindale understood that the City Council could not address them during public comments, several residents were expecting some assurance at the end of the meeting that this request would not be ignored.
Receiving no assurances Lindale residents Janna Moore, Carole Rapp, Lynn Walters, and Tesha Marsh decided to form a Committee of Petitioners and begin the Citizen Initiative Petition process allowed for by the Lindale City Charter.
According to the Lindale City Charter, “Any initiative ordinance may be submitted to the Council by a petition signed by currently qualified voters of the City equal in number to at least 15% of the total number of the qualified voters registered to vote at the last regular municipal election.” The Smith County Board of Elections has reported a total of 4,091 qualified voters registered to vote in the City of Lindale at the time of the last regular municipal election in May 2021. Based on this number the Committee of Petitioners will need to obtain no less than 614 qualified signatures from the registered voters who live within the Lindale city limits.
The Committee of Petitioners, led by Janna Moore, intend to collect well over the required 614 signatures needed to force the Lindale City Council to either adopt the ordinance outlawing abortion in the exact form proposed, or for the ordinance to be placed on the ballot for the voters of Lindale to decide at the next available election.
If you are a registered voter who lives within the city limits of Lindale and you wish to see abortion outlawed within your city limits, please be sure to sign the Citizen Initiative Petition which is being circulated by the Committee of Petitioners.”
Original post on Facebook below:
https://www.facebook.com/markleedickson/posts/10159665645434866