This will put an end to one of the most entertaining, least impactful disputes in our local government in some time - the loud squabble in Cunningham Township over which advisory referenda to include on November's ballot:
A new law, signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich late last month, prohibits registered voters who attend an annual township meeting from proposing advisory referendums without significant advance notice.
State law now requires 15 or more registered voters from the township to request an agenda item for consideration via written notice to the township clerk. The law now requires that such notice must be given no later than March 1.
That generally means a month in advance. Annual township meetings – where residents who are registered voters of the township get to vote – are generally held the first or second week of April.
Discuss.
Sounds a lot better than the current approach, where there can be numerous meetings and each side tries to pack them with supporters.
I talked to Ramey, and Mike Fortner (another sponsor) about this bill several months ago when it was in its early stages.
It wont change things all that much and it will actually help assure that substantive issues such as IRV and transparency,and the like can get on the ballot as advisory referenda. The ability of the people to call special township meetings has not been harmed.
This misleading and fallacious article is really a classically lousy job of reporting on the part of Mike Monson of the Daily Wipe. What he lacked in information and understanding he made up for with words. No wonder people are so confused.
“Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper” - Orwell
“A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.” - Mencken