Charlotte City Council »
In July of 2000, Mike Jackson wrote a piece for the Charlotte Business Journal about the impending arena vote. At the time, the referendum was a bit of a fantasy, as there was no such referendum on the horizon. As you may already know, the referendum ended badly for those in support of the arena.
The editorial includes several quotes from city councilwoman Lynn Wheeler. Some examples, you say? If the public is not allowed to vote, then we seriously erode the public's confidence in the elected officials and the process. Sounds pretty good, right? Sure it does. Then how does she explain this one? As a council we may have to make that decision ourselves. If there is confidence in the public, and the public is given an opportunity, where is there room for the council to make that decision themselves? The room is when they don't like what the public says.
The citizens were presented a choice, they expressed their choice and the Hornets left town because City Council respected that choice. Done deal, you might say. Naturally, you would be wrong. In Charlotte, the City Council makes their own rules. Notable among them is making promises and breaking them. The city is now building an arena. Current cost of this $200 million building? At least $265 million, and that doesn't count interest over the life of the loan, bringing the total to more than $400 million.
To be fair, Ms. Wheeler isn't alone in this regard. A number of council members do the very same thing. Only Harold Cogdell, Malcolm Graham, Don Lochman, Pat Mumford and Sara Spencer were consistent with their comments both before and after the referendum. Out of those, only Mr. Cogdell, Mr. Lochman and Mr. Mumford respected the public wishes and voted against the new arena proposal. Only 3 of 12!
When the final proposal actually came to the table, Mr. Cogdell, Mr. Lochman and city councilwoman Nancy Carter actually voted against the new deal. What happened with Mr. Mumford? There's no telling. It seems apparent that for the most part our current City Council (by a count of 8-3 against, not counting the mayor, Pat McCrory), doesn't much care for what the public has to say.
Why does this matter now? Easy. It's an election year. If you're unhappy with the current system, now is the time to change it. The last time an election year came up, the current council was only too happy to talk a big game and act as if they intended to respect the results of the referendum. However, once the election was over, they did not hesitate to jump right back in and build the thing anyway. Let your voice be heard. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your neighbors. If you don't do something, then there is no room for complaining that nothing has changed. Blog the vote.
We will be a successful city only if the members of the new City Council respect each other and each citizen, communicate well, listen intently, lead sincerely, and honor the trust that has been bestowed upon us by the people.
Any guesses about the source of this quote? Yup. That's Ms. Wheeler again. Ironic, huh?
Comments (3)
This is just the first place I found to stop and write while in search of a City Council link to get ahold of Susan Burgess. While here, I might as well tell you folks what's on my mind. On the way to work I listened to Susan try to explain the up-coming rate increase on our water bills. It seemed at first as though she was going to blame it on last years above normal rainfall for having an effect on the stormdrains, which would be stupid since the stormdrains don't have meters on them. Then she went on to say that while water usage was down, sewage was up. Now someone explain to me how this works. The only theory that I can come up with is that since we stopped washing our cars and watering our lawns we have all just gone to sh--!, and that would be alot of do-do, as I feel this explaination is.
Posted by Mike Emory | March 23, 2004 6:27 PM
Trying to get in touch with Don Reid, you have his E-mail?
While here, will comment, we were shafted on the Arena Deal.
I am currently running for the County Comm.'s Board in the fourth district, trying to dump another yes man to no items for our city-county. I am against funding the arts, white water rapids, nascar, and any kind of baseball stadium, light rail, we just have too many needs and priorities to fund pet projects for special interest people and the up-town business folks, banks,etc.
Posted by clarence puckett | May 5, 2006 1:32 PM
Charlotte council members elected by the people has always done what they wanted. They cheat on ballots by re-wording them to confuse you. They raise taxes to get what they want no matter how it hurts the ones who voted for them. One point is that after all this, they will NEVER get another vote from ME!!
Posted by Jenoquai | March 7, 2008 6:44 AM