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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Democracy Becoming the Status Quo?

During Monday’s Janesville city council meeting, the city manager talked about something he termed “absolute” city ordinances. Apparently, Janesville has ordinances that cannot be appealed, disputed for exceptions or variances, or questioned by the council on behalf of citizens unless the council ASKS the city manager for a judgment based on his discretion. Councilman Tom McDonald challenged this definition. Stay tuned on this one.

I heartily applaud McDonald’s persistent candor and awareness on these issues, but if he continues, he just might save this greasy anti-democratic system of government from itself and prolong our agony.

Speaking of going backwards, Edgerton’s (Pop. 4,933) Mayor Erik Thompson has put forward three proposals to change city government. One of the three, to change the current district representation to an at-large system is right out of the same playbook that downsized the Walworth County Board.
JG Excerpt:
Currently, the city has three aldermanic districts with two council members each. The proposal is to elect all council members at-large, meaning voters anywhere in the city could vote for any candidate.
They have six alderman representing 5,000 people in three districts and they want to change this?? If only Janesville were so lucky over the years. Obviously, somebody's not getting their way in Edgerton. But hey, why not encourage more people to run for mayor in Edgerton and include all of Fulton Township or Rock County?

The other two proposals actually have some merit, to change the mayoral term from two years to four years and to create a term limit of ten years. Before they go any further however, someone needs to change that idea to multiples of four for a three-term, 12 year limit if they change the length of a single term.

But wouldn’t you just know it, those wanting to dismantle districts represented by it's people, will paint this ultimate form of democracy as the status quo. Time for a change - right? Erik Thompson is a Republican.

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