What they did here...
The Town Council invited the public to come to a meeting and voice their opinions about the trash hauling franchise. So the people came, quite a number of them. They sat, in a hot room, through two very long presentations by the Community Development Director and the hired Consultant and some rambling statements by some of the council members. Finally after about an hour and a half, they were called to give voice to their thoughts on the matter.
The long presentations had thinned the audience a little (could that have been intentional?). After all, it was hot and it was dinnertime for many who came on their way home from work. But still, about 20 residents got up and had their say, often to hardy applause from the audience. The clear consensus was that the Paradise and Magalia residents really like the two companies servicing our area and want to keep them. So when the council voted…
They did what! They ignored the will of the people and agreed to negotiate with two other companies. Way to go Council. Don’t let the people who elected you influence your decisions.
What they did there...
State and local governments, in response to the growing rumbling and grumbling about immigration reform, have begun to take action. According to Daniel Wood in the Christian Science Monitor, at least 30 states are considering or have passed bills targeting employers who hire undocumented workers as well as insisting on stricter enforcement of existing laws. At the federal level, in response to the growing public pressure…
They did what! They passed a punitive bill in the House that the Senate rejected, so the Senate presented a bill with amnesty issues that guaranteed it would be rejected by the House. This is a national problem not a state or local issue. If the politicians in Washington are going to shirk their responsibilities and just let the states pick up the slack, maybe we should ask ourselves - why are we paying them the big bucks???