Citizens in Charge

Pensacola, Florida now joins a list with Big Spring, Texas; Howard County, Maryland; and North Platte, Nebraska. In all these places officials - elected and otherwise - have told citizens to take their petitions and their votes - but not their tax dollars - and, well, shove them.

“Even if they did collect enough signatures and it does get approved by voters, the park has passed a point of approval that it is going to be built now…With the petition, there is no practical effect. It could cost us a lot of money for having to hold a referendum vote, and cost us some bad press. But it really will have no effect”

Those were the words of an attorney for the Community Maritime Park Associates, a group working to build a park and stadium complex on the city’s waterfront. His comments are a response to a petition drive now underway to bring a design/build contract passed by the city council in May to a people’s veto referendum vote. If the attorney’s attitude is any indication of the attitude of other city officials, they don’t want voters to matter.

The pattern happens over and over again: politicians and officials embark on a project under mixed public opinion, when the public later tries to use their power of initiative or referendum to block the politicos’ projects or plans they find their petitions are reject or their vote simply doesn’t matter. The plans must go through, citizens are told, because they have already been made. If mere taxpayers and residents oppose, well, that’s just too bad so say officials.

The common sense approach, when faced with public opinion in opposition of one’s plans, is for a government official to step back from those plans and come up with something more in line with the wishes of those they represent and who must ultimately pay for and live with the plans. One Florida activist sums this up perfectly:

“I would think if [the referendum is] successful and a majority of people say they do not want the stadium to be part of the park, if I was a politician I am not sure I would continue down that road…I would hope they would re-evaluate their positions based on the wishes of the public.”

Unfortunately, common sense is often missing from the halls of government, and citizens are ignored and their rights trampled. This was the case in Big Spring, Howard County, and North Platte - citizens petitions were rejected, and in all three cases they were told that a vote against politicos’ plans wouldn’t have counted anyway. In all three cases they went to court, too. Big Spring citizens triumphed, with the city council agreeing - after losing a lawsuit - to put in place the tax rate they sought in their petition. Citizens in Howard County and North Platte are still tied up in court over their petition efforts.

The Pensacola News Journal indicates that, at least in that case, citizens may not be stopped so easily. If citizens successfully put the contract on the ballot and it is rejected by voters, a new contract would have to be approved by city council, which itself could be rejected again by voters.

Now I’ve never been to Pensacola, and I have no opinion on constructing a park there (I fell similarly about the issues at hand in the other cases mentioned here), but if citizens feel it is important enough to bring to a vote and can satisfy the requirements to bring that vote, they ought to get the opportunity to be heard at the ballot box and have their wished respected.