Saturday August 21st, 2010 - 7:42AM

A group of 10 residents petitioning to remove the stadium from the Community Maritime Park project failed to turn in the needed number of signatures by the deadline to put the matter to a referendum vote, said City Manager Al Coby.


However, the petitioners don't see it that way and believe they met the requirements. Yet, it comes down to semantics.


The city's charter — which allows a group of 10 to petition a Pensacola City Council action — says the petitions were due to the city clerk within 60 days of when the group began collecting signatures June 21.


They needed at least 3,850 valid signatures — or 10 percent of the registered city voters from the 2008 election.


The group had collected 3,916 petition signatures by about 8 p.m. Friday, Donovan said.


But they were not turned in by 5 p.m., which is the deadline Coby gave the group because that's when the clerk's office closes under normal business hours.


Former City Councilman Marty Donovan, one of the group's lead petitioners, has a different interpretation of the charter. He believes that because the charter does not specify a time, that his group should have been able to turn in the signatures anytime before midnight Friday.


"We are not done. It is still the 20th," Donovan said Friday night.


Donovan had not turned them in, and as of about 9 p.m. was driving unannounced, with a few fellow petitioners, to the home of the city clerk, Ericka Burnett.


"We are going to get somebody with the City of Pensacola to take these. Our volunteers made one hell of an effort. And for the city manager to set an arbitrary time limit of 5 o'clock is not right. We are up to the challenge."


When contacted at home Friday night, Coby said the signatures would not be accepted.


"Those petitions should have been turned in by 5 p.m.," Coby said. "As far as I am concerned they have not met our conditions of the charter."


Donovan said if the petitions are not accepted by the city that his group plans to sue.


Meanwhile, the park already is under construction and City Attorney Rusty Wells has said the petition drive would be ineffective, even if the correct number of signatures had been collected by the deadline, and even if it passed a referendum.


Former Councilman Jack Nobles, also helping to lead the petition effort, has said he could not comment any further on the petition drive because his employer has asked him not to.


Nobles works at Coastal Bank & Trust in Pensacola and is on the board of directors.

Read this article on PNJ.com here: www.pnj.com/article/20100821/NEWS01/8210322/Effort-to-stop-Maritime-Park-stadium-fails