"Group's lawsuit seeks to put referendum on ballot"

By Margaret Gibbons, Intelligencer/PhillyBurbs.com, August 28, 2009:

The Montgomery County commissioners will have to go before a judge and defend their unanimous decision to refuse to place a citizen-sponsored referendum question on the November ballot.

We the People of Cheltenham, a grassroots citizens group, this week petitioned the county court to order the commissioners, sitting as the county election board, to put the referendum on the ballot.

This legal action comes as no surprise to the commissioners who last week, in turning down the referendum request, acknowledged they don't know whether they have the legal authority to do what they did.

"There really is no law on this," said county solicitor Barry M. Miller.

The commissioners admitted that the citizens group, which wants residents to have more say in the development of their community, did everything right. . . .