Local loan opposition group gears up to get signatures  

A local group opposed to the City of Prince George’s loan proposal is getting ready to take action.

Last month, city council looked at a plan to borrow $32.2 million for various projects. The loan is open to public opinion through the Alternative Approval Process (AAP), which requires that a 25-page document, called the Electoral Response Form (ERF), be filled out and returned by 10% of the registered voters in the city, which is currently 55, 455.

Phil Beaulieu, the founder of a Facebook group called Enough Already! City of PG AAP., has been preparing for the April 18th opening date, which is when the ERFs can be picked up from City Hall, to be returned no later than May 30th.

He told MyPGNow.com that he’s been organizing ways to make it easier for the general population to sign and return the document.

“I think the process is designed to make it difficult, so if people don’t step up and really drive the process, it’ll follow through the way it was developed and intended by the politicians, which is for it to run through uncontested.”  

Beaulieu said he has put the forms into a PDF format that self populates the fields of information once they are on one page.

“We’ve also confirmed that we can pick up more than one set from the city so we’ll have area people that can pick up multiple sets of forms and distribute them to their friends and colleagues and then collect them and bring them back.”

He’s optimistic that the group will be able to get the 5,546 signatures are needed to have the loan reconsidered by council.

“Right now with the feedback I’m getting, I think we’ll get there. It’s definitely changed from when I first put the page up, which was just to see what the feedback would be,” said Beaulieu.

“If people are concerned with the spending direction, they need to fill out the form.”