Voter turnout exceeded 60% in the Presidential election. In local elections it seldom exceeds 25%.
The question always arises how to increase voter participation.

The University Daily Kansan reports what that University is doing to increase Student Senate election turnout…

Student political apathy cannot be solved with one simple bill or one campaign. However, Student Senate is taking a step in the right direction by attempting to lessen the intensity of campaigning. By putting limits on campaign activities, Student Senate has created a balance between suffocating voters with too much information and allowing candidates to still get their message out.

Not only will this bill improve voter turnout by lessening campaign activity, but the new legislation will also encourage candidates to spend less time on petty advertising and more on addressing student concerns.

Because candidates now have restrictions on campaigning, they will be forced to focus more on discussing issues and answering questions than on campaign slogans.

Campus political involvement should be a priority to students during their college careers. Many reasons exist as to why students do not participate in campus politics, and it would be impossible to address all the issues at once.

However, one reason students might not vote is because they feel overwhelmed and annoyed by campaign activities, and therefore are turned off from voting.

Interesting. (We will ignore the First Amendment Rights issue.)

They are banning certain campaign activities because the students are “overwhelmed and annoyed” and thus turned off from voting.

Maybe if we didn’t allow Presidential candidates to campaign the turnout would reach 80% or higher?

Meet Jersey City, NJ Councilman Steven Lipski.
Looks like a fun loving chap … doesn’t he?

According to the New York Daily News he is more than just a fun loving chap.

Pea-brained Jersey City Councilman Steven Lipski swore off booze Sunday – two days after he was busted for urinating on a crowd of revelers at a Washington D.C. nightclub.

“I’ve resolved not to touch alcohol again,” Lipski told reporters outside his home.

He called the incident “deeply humiliating, very embarrassing” and “troubling.”

Lipski, 44, in Washington to see a Grateful Dead tribute band, was hauled out of the concert hall by cops after staffers spotted him in the act about 9:50 p.m., club sources said.

I’m speechless.

Garbage. It seems it is never ending. You take it out one day and it starts all over. There are numerous ways that the problem of garbage pickup can be accomplished. From municipal owned and run no-choice collection to hire whoever you want or haul it away yourself.

After looking at this problem over the years I have come to determine that there is no “one system fits all.”
What works for one city, fails miserable next door.

The Money Beagle from suburban Detroit writes about his recent experience with garbage pickup.

Palo Alto, CA is on the verge of being the next city to ban plastic bags. Giving citizens a choice of “paper or plastic” is not enough.

PaloAltoOnline.Com tells the sad story…

The city’s plan, discussed at Monday night’s City Council meeting, received tentative approval from council members, despite opposition from residents and food-industry representatives who argued that the ban on bags would hurt business and eliminate consumer choice.

Blah, blah, blah.

I found the comments below this article especially interesting.

One of the comments included this link to this information about “paper vs. plastic.”

Granted, this research was done by the American Chemical Council. They may have a bias. 

Opponents to this ban have the problem that in politics, logic very seldom defeats emotion.

The year was 1987. A resolution was brought before the Street Committee to take over maintenance of the County Roads within the City Limits. The idea was promoted by the Street Superintendent and City Engineer with th idea that the funds received from the State to maintain those roads would be an economic benefit to the City. The resolution passed the Street Committee and City Council unanimously.

Time passed.

The economic benefits did not pan out.

Council members who were there in 1987 were no longer there in 2008.

A new City Administrator and Mayor who were not around in 1987 looked at the situation and couldn’t understand why their City paid for the maintenance of County Roads in their City and other Cities didn’t. Questions were asked … with no definitive answers. Tempers sometimes flared. Lawsuits were discussed. It got ugly.

Then it was discovered what had happened in 1987. The resolution. That is why the County no longer maintained the roads within the City.

Why do I bring up this story? I was the Mayor in 1987 that presided over that meeting where the City Council absolved the County of road maintenance duties.

I was quickly asked by some …

What did I know and when did I know it?

Why didn’t I say something about that resolution when I clearly knew the issue was being discussed?

My answer …

Hey, it was twenty one years ago. I don’t remember every decision that was made by the City Council twenty one years ago. I sure wish I did. I wish I had remembered that resolution I most certainly would have stepped up before the ugly discussion of lawsuits was bantered about. But, I didn’t remember.

The lesson to be learned?

No matter how innocuous an issue may seem ( after all the two city experts in the field were both recommending passage) if proper questioning of an issue is not fully done, it can come back to haunt you even more than twenty years later.

I believe that many times the most critical of remarks made towards local elected officials, come from citizens who seldom leave their own little world and objectively look at what they have compared to others.

To those people I say … compare this to where you live.

This is what life is like in Detroit according to the Detroit Free Press…
Tens of thousands of volunteers once again helped keep Detroit from burning out of control on Angels’ Night, but some local officials say there needs to be more help to prevent arson fires year-round.

“Those are the only three days we’ll have everything under control,” Detroit Fire Capt. Steve Varnas said of Oct. 29-31. “But on the other 362 days, we don’t have (this kind of) coverage. Tell me that’s a priority.”

Last year, Detroit had 6,625 fires that were classified as suspicious, meaning investigators initially believed the blazes were set or that there was no obvious cause such as an electrical source. That is an average of about 18 suspicious fires each day, according to Detroit Fire Department figures.

Eighteen suspicious fires each and every day on average … Day after day… Year after year.

Makes you thankful for where you live, doesn’t it.

I know I’m going to sound like an old crumugen, but here goes..

The Roanoke (NC) Daily Herald tells us the story of four fifth grade students who were selected to act as Conway City Officials.

Four fifth-grade students from Willis Hare Elementary School got a crash course in how government works when they recently visited the mayor at the town hall in Conway. The youngsters (Sterling Vaughan, Matthew Wheeler, Jontavias Bowers and Jordan Harrell) were selected by their peers to represent their school’s town council as mayor, vice mayor, treasurer and chairman of special events.

Come on Mayor. Fifth graders are not capable of seeing “how decisions that effect other lives are made.” They are actually paying attention to the city officials maybe 25% of the time they are talking … Maybe.

This whole charade of selecting elementary students “serve” as city officials makes a cute picture, but that is all it does. It does not inspire the kids. It does not educate the kids. It allows for the kids chosen to miss a day of school. That is all it does.

It does make a cute picture though.

Call it what you want…Comprehensive Planning, Master Planning, Long Range Planning … every community needs to do it. I do not know one successful business that does not have some plan or idea of where they want to be years from now. Government is no different, or at least it shouldn’t be.

I came across an article at MySanAntonio.Com which encourages the residents of Alamo Heights, TX to participate in their new Master Planning process.
This week Alamo Heights began a month long series of meetings to ask residents and business owners what they want their city to be.

Opinions and stereotypes abound for the prosperous community that is losing affordable housing but gaining residents attracted by its schools and real estate values. But a city document defining its character, goals and priorities has not been written since 1965.

“If we had followed it, we would have been in really good shape,” Mayor Louis Cooper said about the old plan.

That’s right, 1965. Over forty years since this city has done any long range planning.

When one of your local governments embarks upon make sure you attend one of the meetings set up to gather input from the citizens.

It’s like voting. If you don’t vote … don’t bitch.

If you don’t attend one of these meetings … don’t complain when the final document doesn’t reflect your views.