Isthmus Park Initiative Certified

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Isthmus Park Initiative Certified

Submitted by Thad Curtz on Thu, 10/02/2008 - 9:10pm.

The initiative campaign collected another sizeable pile of signatures over the weekend, and has been officially certified. The discussion at the rezone hearing strongly suggested that the Council will do the study rather than putting the issue on the February ballot. The big question now is how the city will do it. They're discussing two options - having the staff do it themselves, or having an independent outside consultant do it. The part about estimating what it's likely to cost is relatively simple; the big question is how much of an effort they're going to put into the part about seriously exploring ways to get help with the project from the State, the Feds, foundations, etc. They're talking about having it done by the time they vole on the rezone, before the end of the year.

For you political junkies... they needed 15% of the registered city voters in the last general election (25,460), or 3,819. They turned in 5,251. The Auditor stopped counting at 3,849 valid signatures, leaving 251 uncounted. The 1,151 they looked at that weren't valid were:

Not actually registered - 353 (7.1%)
Registered, but outside the city limits - 553 (11.1%)
Signed more than once - 113 (2.3%)
Signatures don't match - 54 (1.1%)
Couldn't identify the name at all - 43 (.9%)
And a small number of a variety of other problems, like printing the signature instead of signing, just printing your name and not signing at all, crossing the signature out, etc...

Best,
Thad

Isthmus initiative

Submitted by tezzer1 on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 5:21am.

Now the work begins. Just because the council has decided to do a feasibility study doesn't mean their hearts are in it. We, the ones who want a park there, have to put on our boots and go-a-marching. I wouldn't leave hard work like this to be carried out by a staff that is already booked. Neither would I depend on a council to make this a priority for staff. (Remember.... one of the reasons for the repeal of the NFZ was that it took too much staff time to manage - and that was no more than 8 hours per year.) How much time and energy do you think they are willing to put into a study they don't want to do in the first place? Find out what it would take for the city to start the process of condemnation for the common good. Governmental bodies have taken private property (with compensation) from citizens in New Jersey and then sold the property to Wal-Mart, supposedly for the "common good." Let's find out what this council considers the "common good" in our neighborhood. Or maybe we drag this out until we get a new city council? At any rate, roll up your sleeves, dig into the nooks & crannies, turn over every rock and find the "feasibility" that the city council so desparately needs. I have heard council members over the years say many times that they can't do everything by themselves. Now's our chance to help them! SEMPER VIGALANTE!

foundation grant writing

Submitted by chad360 on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 9:41am.

Raise the cash through grantwriting, and create a study project that involves students.

chad360

Signatures Don't Match

Submitted by Bert on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 11:41am.

I am curious about this one (signatures don't match.) I would assume that the auditor would make every effort to contact someone in the case of a signature appearing to not match. Doesn't anyone else know the protocol in this situation?

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