LEWISTON - Voters on Tuesday accepted a plan to let citizens challenge City Council decisions by collecting signature petitions door to door.

The measure to amend city rules passed 2,335 to 1,297. The new rule takes effect July 10.

The rules allow 10 registered voters to take out a petition challenging council decisions and circulate the petition around the city. They'd have 60 days to collect signatures and would have to collect roughly 1,200 signatures - 7 percent of the number of voters in the most recent gubernatorial election.

Councilors in January approved the rules, but the city needed voter support to make them valid.

Petitioners would be able to challenge any city decision, except for those involving city employment and current-year budget issues. Council budget decisions overturned by voters would stay in place for the current year and would be overturned after that.

The old rules required registered voters to go to City Hall to sign petitions, conflicting with the City Charter and state election rules.

The issue came to a head in 2006, after the city adopted a storm-water utility fee to pay for culvert maintenance, street-sweeping and storm sewer-line projects. A group of 10 residents started a petition seeking to overturn the fee but failed to gather enough signatures to put it on the November 2006 ballot.