City council positions to remain at-large, at least for now
Detroiters for Reform, a grasssroots organization that was aiming to change how Detroit City Council members are elected to their positions did not get the required amount of signatures to have their proposed measure put on the upcoming November ballot.
Currently, Detroit’s nine council members are elected at large; Detroiters for Reform was trying to get a proposal on the ballot that would call for council members to be elected by specified, assigned districts, rather than by any Detroit citizen.
This is not the first time an initiative like this has failed.
The group has until May 9, 2006, to get the rest of the signatures if it would like to have the initiative put on the August 2006 primary ballot.
i think that’s a great idea… do you think that things like that don’t get passed because people in general just don’t care or what???
i was hoping someone would post on here about the reorganization of the police… kinda surprised you didn’t… you’re so informed and all! hehe…
In this case, it wasn’t really a question of it being passed, because not enough signatures were even collected. That is most likely the result of Detroiters for Reform being a true grass-roots campaign – they probably just needed more man-power in order to get the 32,000+ signatures they needed to get the proposal on the ballot. In terms of the other times it didn’t pass, I am guessing it was a result of similar circumstances.
Also, you have to consider human nature, and the idea that most people don’t easily embrace change. If the campaign would have provided voters with enough education on the subject, this type of thing would have a better chance of passing; however, since “education”, per se, would likely involve the repeated exposure of the subject to voters in Detroit – in the forms of advertisements, public forums, seminars, flyers, etc. – the task is made even more difficult because small organizations are usually lacking the key ingredients – money and manpower – that are necessary to even get the educational items out there to the public.
thanks… i truly appreciate you and look forward to all your posts here and on your personal site…