08/16/2010 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Regular Council Meeting Minutes 8-16-10 Page 3 Council to come to the voters first and it should not be placed on the voters to try to scramble to undo what Council has done. As to referendum rights, they are defuutely important. The right to vote first is nice, but in circumstances where Council can vote first we need to have the right to challenge. I mentioned last time and I'll suggest it again that you go on cleveland.com, read about what happened in South Euclid this summer where the citizens got enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot and because of that their City Council then went ahead and just repealed and enacted a tax credit rollback for the citizens. Who's trying to take away whose rights? It's been suggested at the last meeting that placing on the ballot a couple of mild-mannered Charter amendments which would remove our right to vote and our right to referendum is as American as apple pie since it preserves our right to vote. But I want to ask you this, how many people, how many voters will go to the polls in November, see the innocently worded proposing Charter amendment language, not see the old language and not even realize that they are being asked to give up or forfeit their voting rights or referendum rights. I would argue that it's important to keep those rights. I would argue that it's important to hold a11 of our elected officials and to you elected officials, it's important to hold a11 of us voters accountable. Too many people rely on a passive and uniformed electorate. It's up to us to not a11ow that to happen. We are accountable to you as voters. You are accounta.ble to us as our elected officials. I ask that you take that seriously and that as the electorate, we serid a clear and strong message that we will not give up our right to vote and we will not give up your responsibility to be accountable to us. Thank you. Council President Buckholtz thanked Ms. Bodnar and asked if there was anybody else that wishes to address Council at this time. Please step up to the microphone and state your name and address for us. Linda Butler 817 Hanover Road I am sorry to have. missed last meeting last week. I hear it was quite a meeting and I want to thank you Council and the Mayor for scheduling that meeting. Democracy is always or can be very tough and I appreciate that you gave the citizens an opporlunity to discuss the issues with you and I just think it was great and even though I wasn't here I heard about it and I appreciate the opportunity. This issue has been talked around quite a bit and so I am going to make a very brief statement on a couple of things that I don't think have been covered. Many of us who were active in the gas well issue are active in this issue. This is not because we relish the process of confronting Council which we do not. I was involved with the gas issue because I realized that a very thin line of possibility separated me and my property from having a gas well next door. It made me realize, in a very stark way, that neither the State nor the City could protect me from having a gas well next door and it was up to me and the citizens who didn't want a gas well next door to rally the citizenry to oppose it and it made me realize how powerful corporations have