Special City Council Meeting called for Non-partisan election referendum

A special meeting of the Florence City Council has been called for 4:00 pm tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday March 4, 2009). The only item on the agenda is the nonpartisan referendum issue.

This will be the third attempt by the proponents of this issue to set a date. Two meetings ago, they moved to have it set, but it was not properly on the agenda. At the February 9, 2009 meeting, debate was heard on the issue. Council members Blake-Williams, Powers, Brand and Bradham voted for setting a date. They failed, as they lacked the 2/3rds majority needed to call the question. Now, those same council members have called for a special meeting just on this sole issue.

The truth of the matter is, there was never any problem with partisan elections, until this last election. Why is that? Luckily, we don't have to guess at the last City Councils' motivations, its on the record why: because they lost. Now, all of a sudden, partisan politics is bad for the City of Florence. Really? Back when they proposed this, Frank Willis said "“I think most of the people on this council see this as not about power,but as about the citizens of Florence being able to vote for whoever they want to vote for.” That wasn't the case then and it's not the case now.

The votes seemed pretty entrenched at the last meeting. Has someone changed their mind? Has Councilman Brand found "other legal venues" to bring the matter before? Have the four council members pushing this issue been studying their Robert's Rules of Order? Make your way to City Council Chambers (Room 601) tomorrow at 4:00 pm to find out.