Clerk rules no referendum on stadium

Former state Treasurer Patrick Quinn was sacked Friday in hiseffort to force a binding referendum on the $587 million renovationof Soldier Field.

Quinn's group filed as many as 500 signatures on a taxpayerspetition-five times the number required by an obscure state law that,Quinn contends, requires stadium referendums.

But City Clerk James Laski ruled that the referendum would not beplaced on the February ballot. Relying on an opinion issued by cityCorporation Counsel Mara Georges, Laski ruled that the state law doesnot apply to the Soldier Field project.

Quinn said Mayor Daley is afraid to put the stadium project beforeChicago voters for fear that it would be …