Political Gumbo: Election Results

I decided to drop the Monday Morning Pot of Gumbo moniker and just stay with the brand you all love so much.

Well, most of you do.

I didn’t see too many surprises in the school board races.

It was obvious who was campaigning and who was not.

Measure L, the library tax extension cruised to victory, and it looks like like Measure H will pass.

Of course Measure H is where we’ll stop.

My big question is who protects the local tenants that will see their rents skyrocket before the measure takes place.

Yes, it will happen.

Also, and one of the local lawyers can answer this one, can an initiative create a board, commission or committee that is not accountable to the City Council or City Manager?

A judge is going to have to unravel it, I suspect.

But that aside this should be an example to the so-called activists.

Instead of calling the City Council meetings and tossing the N word around and demanding the City Council act outside the charter, rent control organizers put their boots on the ground and collected the signatures to get the initiative on the ballot.

It does not matter if I support it or not, the point here is that’s how you produce change.

You work within the established system to change that system.

Yes, like King, the Black Panthers and Malcolm X.

King and X met after they witnessed a filibuster on a Civil Rights Bill in 1964. One week later X left the Nation of Islam after he could no longer abide the corruption in that organization.

Constant self-examination and scrutiny lead to growth and convictions.

Conviction plus real work can change things.

In other words, you catch more flies with conviction, than you do with vinegar.

You can’t change anything by calling in to the City Council on Mondays and struggling to press the right button on your phone to be heard.

Yeah some folks have been losing the battle with the telephone for two years now.

Others apparently think profanity will somehow change the City Charter.

It won’t.

It takes real work, knocking on real doors.

So I write a lot about accountability and getting things straight in this space and yes that applies to me too.

In my “I Hate This Game” column I said that some residents in D3 were now claiming that the process to appoint a council member is unconstitutional.

Well according to one of the organizers of that group, that’s not the truth. It turns out it’s one person spouting that crazy line and not the group itself.

As a matter of fact, the focus of the group is not any applicant or candidate, but issues in the district.

That’s admirable.

Hopefully the group which is not just made of people spouting wild-eyed conspiracy theories, but some people who want to see the district get better will stay together and continue to do some good and eventually work with Councilmember Justin Jones.

At the same time, lets hope they ignore the outsiders who don’t live in the district and want to light fires just because they have a proverbial book of matches.
The district needs leaders, not agitators.