Newspaper Article

[WMSteed@aol.com]

There was an interesting article in the Moscow Pullman Daily Effort this 
afternoon (May 2, 2000).

In the first part of the story, two council members call for "a more public 
process" and to "open up" [the process] during the selection of a replacement 
for councilman Tony Johnson.  In  other city business reported in the same 
article the City Council authorized the sale of $3 million of sewer revenue 
bonds to begin the third phase of the upgrading of the waste water treatment 
plant.  

More often than not, revenue bond issues such as this are authorized by 
public vote; but in this case it had been previously decided by the City 
Council to use judicial review, a bond issue ordered by a judge based on 
usual and necessary activities of the city that precludes public input.

The same two council members mentioned in the Tony Johnson replacement 
remarks, Peg Hamlett and Linda Pall, both previously voted against a public 
vote on the 1912 Building and went along with not having a more public 
process on the sewer bonds.  

Interesting.  

"Public process" must depend on the outcomes you desire.  In the Johnson 
case, they possibly wanted a different outcome; not the one decided by 
representative government. In the sewer bond case and the 1912 Building vote, 
they probably did not dare let the public speak for fear of what they might 
have said.

Walter Steed