A Buda City Council member is questioning the tactics used to garner signatures for a successful petition drive to loosen alcohol laws in Buda and Kyle.
“When this petition came by our house, they said it was to allow more restaurants,” Councilwoman Dawn Schaeffer said during a recent Buda City Council meeting. “They didn’t say anything about alcohol.”
Schaeffer said she asked the petitioner to show her the ballot wording.
“I don’t have it,” the petitioner replied, according to Schaeffer.
Funded by a local group called Better Business for Hays and coordinated by Texas Petition Strategies, the petitioners obtained more than 800 signatures in Buda and 1,800 in Kyle, forcing the ballot measure.
The Kyle and Buda city councils both voted last week to call the special elections, which will be held in May in Kyle and in November in Buda. But first, Schaeffer had a message for the company that coordinated the petition drive.
“Whoever regulates these things, I hope that we can somehow get the message to them that I would like some type of verification of how these petitions are being carried out, because this has a great effect,” she said.
John Hatch of Texas Petition Strategies noted that every page of the petition provided specific information about the effort to change that city’s alcohol laws.
“If she saw the petition form, she saw the ballot language,” Hatch said. “State law dictates the verbiage on the petition form that people signed, and it will be the exact same wording on the ballot. I’m not sure how there can be confusion.”
The petition drive has been widely covered in local media, he added.
“It will allow more restaurants in Buda, and other alcohol establishments,” Hatch said. “What he said was not incorrect.”
Voters will decide whether to allow bars and nightclubs in the two cities as well as liquor stores in Buda.
