On force-feeding an agenda...Part II
The withdrawal of American troops from Iraq isn't usually a topic of discussion for the Osceola Village Board.But the most heinous part of this story is yet to come:The group represents a city of 2,600 and typically tackles zoning changes or hears reports from library staff members.
But thanks to anti-war activists and a rarely used Wisconsin law, the resolution for withdrawal was on the agenda last week, sandwiched between a request to hang a banner downtown and a sewer bonding issue. And next spring the matter will go before voters.
"You really can't do much about something this size," board President Charles Jensen said of the Iraq war. "We're not into sticking our nose in a lot of things. We pretty much kind of mind our own business."
The resolution has been pushed in three Polk County communities Amery, Frederic and Osceola by the local Green Party and hasn't sat very well with locals in any of the towns.
In the past two weeks, the Amery City Council unanimously voted to reject the resolution, the Frederic board voted to take no action, and in Osceola, the board couldn't even muster a vote.
For the municipal governments, the rub is that by law they have only two options: Vote to approve the resolution or vote to put it on the next general election ballot. That means the resolution will get a vote April 4 in all three communities. Similar resolutions are being pushed across the state and could make the ballot in up to 38 cities.
"I don't want it on the ballot, but there's nothing I can do about it," said Purnal Tracy, Osceola village board member and a World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veteran. He was never asked to sign the petition but said he would have chased any petitioner off his porch. "Whatever it has to be, it has to be, but I'm against it."
."The thing that surprised me about it was that it was people that came from outside the city and they can force (the issue) on your ballot," Soltis said. (emphases added)Here is the text of the Osceola, Wisconsin resolution:
The state's direct legislation statute allows citizens to have a resolution put on any board agenda by getting enough signatures from the community in support.
"The purpose is to enable electors and voters in cities and villages to have some self-control or organization by being able to legislate ordinances in their cities or villages," said George Dunst, legal counsel for the Wisconsin State Elections Board.
The statute usually is used for establishing public services such as a police department or constructing a swimming pool. About two-dozen states across the country have a similar law at the statewide level.
The troop-withdrawal resolution is novel, Dunst said: "It's not classic direct legislation, because it doesn't really legislate within a city or village." He has told various city and village administrators who have contacted him about the resolution to consider it a valid use of the statute.
"Be it hereby resolved, That the United States begin an immediate withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, starting with the National Guard and Reserves."yet another example of leftist activism being foisted on communities that has no bearing on that community's prevailing mores or wishes. This is emblematic of the motus operandi that the left uses to pass its agenda that they know won't have a snowball's chance in hell of passing via legislative means.
You want to know the importance of who is in the judiciary, even in the local and state levels?
This is it.
(Filed under secular taliban, The Fifth Column)
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