Fill the Ballot Request Laid to Rest in Superior
Motion to receive and file was the final verdict by the city council this week. The request of filling the spring ballot with non-binding advisory questions submitted by the people of Superior was laid to rest. In layman’s terms it’s the equivalent of throwing the request in the garbage and setting it on fire. The request in question was presented to the city council last week by email and can be found in my blog post dated Jan 13th, which I recommend reading in order to fully understand the council’s actions.
The request was derived over the period of most of 2010 in having made contact with over 1000 citizens of Superior. These contacts were made in the process of obtaining signatures for a NLX referendum and nomination papers for a congressional run and now a mayoral run. The ballot question request was made to the city council for the non-intimidating form of referendum questions known as advisory or non-binding questions in which the city council need not act on, but is assumed to be used as an advisory tool. State law does provide for binding referendum questions to be derived by the people. Fifteen percent of the city’s vote total for governor in the last election or 1251 signatures would be needed to place referendum questions on the ballot, also known as direct legislation or as I like to call it the ‘hard way’.
Moving on, even though the council did dump the idea, I was somewhat hopeful that there may be hope for future ballots. Specifically, Mick MacKenzie, Greg Mertzig, and Chuck Hendry did make statements that I’m sure their constituents can find hope in.
Video for the city council meeting can be found here:
http://www.ci.superior.wi.us/index.aspx?NID=528Â
Click on the January 18th meeting and advance the video progression bar to 57:10
If there is any interest in this idea you should call or email your city councilor. Even though I was disappointed I’m not going to dwell on it unless there is overwhelming interest.
In the next coming weeks my goal is to first educate the public and to instill in the people, that regardless who is your next mayor, the most important thing this city can have is a politically diversified city council. Why? I’m hoping many are asking yourselves. The short answer is the city’s form of government is strong council-weak mayor, meaning the council has most of the power to pass spending measures and enact ordinances.
Second only to that is campaigning for mayor. On that note, if I am elected as your next mayor, there will be advisory questions on all ballots. Even if WE have to do it the hard way. The voice of the majority needs to be heard and respected.
Please visit my mayoral candidate website:Â Â www.votefordon.com
Don thanks for looking out for the common folk. I know the city council voted down the idea of having non-binding questions on the ballot but it was a victory in a sense. We now at least know how the city council feels about community involvement. Maybe we need a citizens group to post questions on a website for people to vote on.
You are definitely on the right track; we need a good way to involve more people in the political process of our local government.
I read the proposal and watched the video. I think you kind of confused the city council. You’re writing with too much legalese. It reads good, it sounds good, but some of those councilors didn’t get it. I liked it and I expect to the city council to be open to it in future elections. The comment of not having enough time is a joke. Things move pretty fast if there is interest even in Superior.
Speaking of interest, your timing is way off. Especially if the Packers win the superbowl. Then you will have about a week to get people motivated. Good luck, I like the energy!
There isn’t any techniques to success. It does not take consequence of preparation, hard work, and gaining knowledge through failure.
Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing after which blaming others for inadequate results.