Tuesday, September 4, 2007

With a Whimper

Buried in the small news over the weekend was the announcement that the Kissimmee Charter Review Committee had completed their review of the city charter without any major change recommendations, other than grammar/language items.

We'd like to thank those who participated in the committee, even though we called you out early in the process for primarily being 'insiders.' The process had to be tedious, even if no major changes were recommended. It will be interesting to see if the commission goes forward without any further recommendations of their own.

Reviewing this process in hindsight, we have to ask: Did the charter review meet the expectations of those who proposed it? It certainly seemed like a hot topic during the last election, when most candidates said that they supported having a charter review committee. Then the city commission decided to place five election changes before the public on the January ballot, arguing that they needed time to 'educate the public' on these proposed changes...there were even discussions about holding community events about these changes. Now the charter review committee has completed their work.

Were those who called for charter review simply hoping to get out of submitting 20 signature cards in the next election?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The commission had already removed all of the issues that should have been debated. Form of government being one of those issues. If we are going to continue with a City-Manager form of government, then we need to start electing stronger commission that can actually keep staff from running the show. The problem is that staff is the only real brain working on city issues.

GRAFFIX said...

HERE, HEAR. I HAVE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS THAT THE GOOD 'OL BOY MENTALITY IS A PERFECT FIT FOR DURBIN. WATCH HOW QUICKLY THE PARROTS SAY "MOVE TO APPROVE AND SECOND" WHEN HE UTTERS THOSE MAGICAL WORDS, "STAFF APPROVES". A STRONG COMMISSION WOULD BE QUESTIONING THE TAX CUTS, SPENDING (LIKE THE FREE BATH FOR THE HOMELESS AT THE ROUND ABOUT), ETC. MAYBE SOMEDAY SOON WE WILL WAKE UP AS CITIZENS AND TAKE OUR GOVT BACK.

GRAFFIX said...

HERE, HERE! I HAVE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS THAT THE COMMISSION(S) ALL HAVE A PARROT PHRASE WHEN DURBIN UTTERS THE WORDS "STAFF RECOMMENDS". GEMSKIE AND VAN M, SOMETIMES CARLOS LOVE TO SAY "MOVE TO APPROVE OR SECOND". SAD. SOMEDAY, SOON I HOPE, THE VOTERS VOTE AND TAKE BACK THE GOVT THEY SEEM WILLING TO GIVE AWAY.