Last Thursday at 5 PM a workshop was held to discuss the possibility of placing items researched by the 2007 Charter review committee on a ballot so that the citizens could vote on them. This is an item that was discussed during several council meetings and it was decided that it would be best to get the input of the committee (Considering it sat on the shelf for one year before anything was done with it)and how they came to the conclusions they did. Even though the meeting was placed on the board outside city hall to meet basic requirements of law some of the members were not informed of this meeting until 11:55 AM on Thursday by email. This gave some members 5 hours and 5 minutes to prepare and arrange their schedules for the meeting. However some of the members were not notified at all. (Kind of like scheduling a baseball game and notifying one team and the umpires but not notifying the other team of the date or time.)
But the bottom line here is why is there such a rush to place these items on a May ballot? Why don’t some of the council members want to give the voters of our city an opportunity to understand the meaning and impact that each revision will have on our city? The consultant even stated that if single member districts passed it would not be until after the 2010 census that such an action could take place. So why not spend the time by taking each proposed amendment and setting a public meeting every month or so to allow the citizens an opportunity to ask questions and better understand what they will be voting on? Isn’t that what open and transparent government is all about? Why not record those meetings and play them back on channel 16 as well as placing them on the city web site? Why force the citizens to have to make a snap decision that will effect our city for a long time?
From emails I have received some believe that it is to distract the voters from learning about the new candidates that are running for office. Others believe that it is just the good old boys trying to shove something else down the throats of the citizens.
What are your thoughts?
