07/03/2001 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 7/3/2001 his concern that it's being brought up at the wrong time, it should be noted that, at a Council meeting in January of 1996, Mr. O'Grady said Fairview Park was one of the cities that is non-partisan and he also said, "The fact of the matter is, after talking to Fairview Park representatives, both current and former, non-partisanship does not work. It's an illusion." She has some concern over not just a change of heart but rather a commitment and then a change of commitment. She supports Mr. Nashar's concern about that as well. A difference of opinion is probably not something that should be attacked. It is something that should be respected. Mr. Lambert said that the Law Director's memory is extremely short because he began his comments by saying that it is the duty of a council to act responsibly and vote on issues. And that many times coming before Council are groups of people who are fractionalized who bring ideas that Council has to filter through. Then he talked about who brought this idea to Council and how many people have supported it and what positions in the community that they held. The idea is that, with all the smoke that's being blown around the issue, the issue is simply to give the people a right to choose. Maybe he does and maybe he doesn't know how he'll vote on it. It doesn't make any difference. He's just here to say give the public a chance to choose the fundamental government that they want their polfticians to operate under. If you want to take politics out of government, take the politicians out of it to start with and let's get some people up there that want to serve the community as citizens not politicians. Jim Burns, 3978 Dover Center, commented that Mr. Lambert just said that we should take the personal out of it. By taking this issue and taking it beyond the November election, it's no longer going to be said what candidate approves it or doesn't. It's going to be voted on its own merits. So he has no problem at all with this issue being delayed until after November. Councilman O'Grady commented that a member of Council said that he doesn't want this thing to go on the ballot because he's afraid it's going to benefit somebody's campaign. Another member of Council said that it's suspicious. As he looks at these kinds of statements, he simply thinks: how sad. We can be better than this. We should be better than this. In order to follow along the lines of Mr. Burns, let's take the personal side out of it. The way you take the personal side out of it is, finally after three charter review commissions that made the recommendation, after fifteen years of debate, you let the people decide. That's where the question is. All the rest of this stuff is smoke and mirrors. Let the people decide. Councilman Dailey said this issue has come up repeatedly-several charter review commissions have made the recommendation. Repeatedly, a majority of the seven members of Council voted it down and not allowed the 34,000 members of the community the opportunity to choose if they think it's right or not. For years we've watched as community after community has gone non-partisan. According to the Board of Elections, there are only six communities that still have partisan elections: Berea, Brook Park, Lakewood, Parma, Rocky River and North Olmsted. Two hundred twenty- 8