Monday, February 22, 2010
Let's talk about plurality versus majority voting in St. Marys.
The next public hearing will be at 1:00 PM on March 8th. After that was voted on tonight, I strongly encouraged city council to schedule at least one more at 6:00 PM again.
I told council that I would try to get folks engaged in a meaningful discussion of the issues here on my blog prior to the meeting so that they might follow it to get a better feel for what people are thinking.
So, someone please start off with the first comment.
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10 comments:
All other aspects of local government are handled be majority vote. How much sense does it make for the minority elected candidates to do business by majority?
The people who were elected last go round played by the then extant rules and won. They will all be there for four years. Continuiing to harp on this theme that they are somehow less legitimate than they would be if they had been elected by a majority serves no useful purpose.
Not to harp about it at all; the present council and mayor were legally elected. But, the circumstances of their election vividly points out the fallacy of our current plurality system. The election came down to one major issue, airport relocation. The anti-relocationsists split the vote and the pro-relocationists won with a minority. It is very possible that, had there been a run-off, we would have different people in 2 council and the mayor's seat.
This is just a stalling tactic. Bird made more sense than any one. Folks don't care to come there and express their views. They do that in the ballot box in private. Plus with Deloughy you don't know how you will be treated. Get it on the ballot and put it to rest once and for all. The longer they stall the more they can say there is not enough interest. It needs to decided at the polls not at city hall.
It is a very poor system that allows the minority elected to make decisions for the majority of the voters. The proof of that is when the minority elected are trying to stall the issue by meetings over and over. If they think it is not an issue then they are indeed fools. Topix certainly has generated interest. Put it to a vote and quit the stalling. It is being stalled on purpose. It is the minority elected protecting the minority elected. All they need to do is read the blogs.
Are you sure that you want to stick with your assertion that you can learn all you really need to know about the subject by reading Topix?
For instance, do you find this statement from Topix helpful?
"Alvin
Kingsland, GA
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22 min ago Trip wrote:
BS....
Double B.S. Osprey Cove is made up of a lot of residents. But there are a few arrogrant, baby butt nose, red faced, martinni sipping asses who give them all a bad name. Those whiskey drinking, loud mouths, know it alls have created undue resentment. This is a community not a damn gated country club. I support the right to live where you choose and in the type of neighborhood you desire. I do not support any bunch that sets themselves apart from the rest of the community with their know it all attitudes. Plurality promotes that type. I.E. Deloughy."
I have to agree with the one Anonymous poster that , yes, the current council was elected by a legally binding process.....just not the right process.
This current election, as they stated, severely showed the flaw in the system. When you have 3 people running in each different post, 1 is for an issue and the other 2 are not, suprisingly enough, across the board in each different post, then the 2 that are not for it will split the vote every time, and the 1 who is for it will win with less than majority. So do the people speak in this process? Yes......just not the majority of them.
And I agree Jay, that saying they are less legitimate is not correct, for they were elected by the legally flawed system we had in place.
But they need to be aware that people are not happy about it, be contious about it, listen to the people to try to fix the problem, and maybe try to prove people wrong and not be pompous asses about it (as they need to remember that they do "work for the poeple") and not have the Obama "Annointed One" and Nancy Pelosi "I know what is good for you" attitude.....or they will never get any support in this town.
I'm Just Sayin'
WAKE UP ST. MARYS!!!!
"Are you sure that you want to stick with your assertion that you can learn all you really need to know about the subject by reading Topix?"
Hell, no. But we probably won't learn much here either. I await 2 things. (1) I want to hear the city attorney's report on the legalities, and (2) I want a binding referendum so that I can vote and the people can decide.
Okay, but it is obvious to me that some people, i.e., Bob Nutter (he of the newly adopted passive-aggressive strategy), Tom Cyphers. et al, are hell bent and determined to keep demanding that Deloughy, Post, and Morrissey act apologetically and walk on egg shells fo the next four years. Puts me in mind, in a microcosmic way, of the nut jobs infected with Bush Derangement Syndrome who kept insisting that Al Gore won the election.
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