As predicted in my Post of February 22, 2012, the E–Verify Ordinance submitted to the city of Springfield was dead on arrival. Some seven months later after lengthy negotiations and a lawsuit challenging the validity of the E–Verify Ordinance the City Council repealed the invalid provisions of the Ordinance and several months later the Council repealed the remaining provisions.

This case and others illustrates why an initiative petition can be a City Council’s worst nightmare and can cause the city attorney to have migraine headaches. City administrators also have difficulties trying to figure out how to juggle all of the normal city business including scheduling of other elections and payment for the cost of elections, which can easily cost around $150,000 for a special election.

These are valid concerns some of which have already been addressed by the City of Springfield amending its charter with other amendments pending to fine tune the initiative process.