City Council voted to put the $22 million referendum on the November ballot. Collectively, this is unsurprising considering: the short time we, as a council, were given to solve a long-term problem; and objectively: the reality was, in the end, there was but one choice to be had.
I couldn’t vote as unfortunately the special meeting was moved to a time in conflict with previous commitments. Given the situation, I know that many of my colleagues ultimately voted to let the voters decide. That’s fair and I wish I could say definitively how I would’ve voted. I can’t.
However, I can say that since this situation was first formally introduced to us (in February, as a council on the whole) there have been many long nights, where I have struggled with knowingly and consciously having to put staff jobs and essential services up against a referendum.
Since being pulled into the process, many of us have worked with seriousness to speed-study the issue, work to understand how we got here, cut through the cogs and subjective spin, and look for alternative solutions.
Perhaps our effort was Pollyanna-ish considering we all realized in the back of our minds (and to the credit and deftness of executive leadership) that the minimum votes had been long whipped before it was formally brought to our attention and long before many of us, in earnest, started the city-council-directed community engagement that many of you participated in.
Pollyanna-ish, perhaps, was also not realizing we were out of time before we even started; realizing now that effectively, we were given 6 months on something that the experts will tell you normally takes 2 to 3 years to go through.
So the voters will decide on November 5th. Please vote. How you vote? That’s entirely up to you.
