Winding Down
Thursday, October 1st, 2009Well the vote went as expected tonight. The opposition played it just like I thought they would. My thoughts on how the vote went are below.
There is a group that seeks as much control as possible over this City. This is this same group that continually seeks to maintain tight control over all aspects of what goes on in this City. It is this same group that I have butted heads on a regular basis over the last 7+ years on numerous issues. This is the group that wants to control the City, the Council, its staff and City Boards and anything else that might impact the direction of this City.This is the group that won today.
It is a sad day for the citizens of Temple when their elected representatives shut down the chance for the very people that elected them to have a say on this important issue. They rationalize their votes with a myriad of reasons all ultimately rooted in the truth that they know best and that the voters are not qualified or intelligent enough to decide this issue. This vote was not about doing business with the City. It was all about keeping the status quo.
It was obvious to me during the discussions that the Mayor and Councilmen Janczak and Schneider knew full well that if the proposed amendment would have passed had it gone to the voters. Both the Mayor and Councilman Janczak commented that this was not an appropriate way to amend the Charter. The vote was not about amending it, the vote was to sending to the voters. “If there was really a groundswell of voter support for this issue it should be easy enough to mount a petition drive” Janczak stated. Schneider commented that he had only had one call and two emails in support of the change. Logically, one would assume that if there was no support for the amendment it would fail at the ballot box. So why not put the issue to bed once and for all and let the citizens vote it down? Why sully a reputation over a non-issue that has no public support? Because everyone knew that the amendment would pass in a landslide - that’s why.
This brings us to the future. I have taken this as far as I am comfortable with. I do not think it would be appropriate for a sitting Councilman to launch a petition drive. I am also not going to beat a dead horse and keep harping on this issue. I will support any effort to take it to the next level but I will not be leading the charge. I will make one more post to this blog and then retire from blogging on City affairs. It has served its purpose and is the main reason I got as far as I did and I will leave it up for people to educate themselves on my thoughts on this conflict of interest issue. My last post will be a video of the discussion tonight for everyone’s viewing pleasure.