The following is the letter I just sent to the newspapers concerning the petition for term limits. Please understand that it is not a problem with the term limits, but purely the unnecessary cost to the taxpayers of Gonzales.
I've been hesitant to pull the petition until I was certain that the elections were not going to happen. Tonight will be vote by the council to cancel the election, and in doing so puts the entire project in a different light.
I wanted to let all those in support of the term limits that we pulling the petitions at this time. Those of us who have put this together, are also those who are asking for financial responsibility within our city government. With the recent events, there will be no city election this year for city council, so per the city charter a special election would have to be called by the city if the city council didn’t approve it.
We didn’t want to take the chance that the council wouldn’t approve it and incur the cost of a special election, and secondly we would prefer this go before the city voters. Per the charter, if the voters approve the amendment the city council can not change it in the future without a vote of the people. We would prefer this to be the manner that this petition for term limits is approved, so that the people of Gonzales will ALWAYS have the final say on this issue.
We appreciate all the support and positive comments that have come our way. Look forward to the petition coming back out in February 2012, so that it will be on the next general election.
God Bless
Dennis Nesser
Dennis Nesser
You refer to "we" several times, who are "we"?
ReplyDeleteBill,
ReplyDeleteWhile this concept and drive to get this going has been my doing I've had plenty of encouragement and help along the way. Additionally I don't put it out there that I know everything about everything, so I have to go ask those that know about what I'm looking for.
In this case a lawyer that would make sure the verbiage would stand up if challenged.
My councilman - he came to me concerned about the cost to the city of a special election after the general election was deemed unnecessary.
And a wide variety of individuals at restaurants in Gonzales as I've posed the idea to them.
As for the transparency in government, I don't remember getting to tax anyone, make decisions for anyone, or provided any services except those of my opinion and allowing anyone, free of charge, their opinion to be published. Until I get those rights I believe our laws and constitution allows a clear different standard, don't you?