Just Plain Ornery wasn't at the meeting. She wrote up a brief summary of what she saw on TV, toward the beginning of the meeting. One thing she got wrong was the problem with the sign in sheets. She reported that people had been marking FOR when they should have been marking they were AGAINST the repeal. Just the opposite. The sign in sheets were very unclear. People had to be instructed to sign in the FOR box if they were against the repeal. City staffers scurried around changing the sign in sheets by hand, changing the boxes to check to KEEP and REPEAL. However, those same sign in sheets didn't work very well for people who were there to speak about the noise ordinance. In addition, 9 people from the Cooper Crest neighborhood were there to complain about ongoing problems there. The City Council can't do much for them, though, because it's not a policy issue. Rather, the developer is in violation of permits, and it's up to city staff to seek compliance. There was no box for them to check, either.

I was proud to march but wasn't one of the 25 to make it into a seat.

Gabi and Alec Clayton were inside, we can watch Gabi's blog here: Gabi Clayton Blog .

further educate our citizenry about the actual meaning of representative democracy.

Ex-councilman Johnson and others seem to often equate the appearance of 40, 50, or 500 people at a public hearing with certainty that another 22,000 or so citizens of Olympia must agree (thus making for the minimum 50% mark).  To say that support is "widespread" suggests, to me, far more than 50%.

The reality is that the last time our entire citizenry did make a statement through counted votes, the views that seem to be often espoused by these council-screamers were trounced.  The City Council elections didn't show modest wins for the newest members of the council...there were overwhelming, powerful margins of victory for Ottavelli, Strub, and Mah against the likes of Matthew Green and Meta Hogan.  All three of the winners voted against this ordinance.  Machlis was appointed and voted against.  To the extent that the newly-electeds are even halfway-decent politicians, their votes suggest that they think their constituents are likely to support their votes.

Put another way, if TJ (or Bob Jacobs, or Matthew Green or Meta Hogan or whomever) feel that representative democracy has gone so terribly amock in Olympia as a result of us no longer having this iditioc, time-wasting ban in place or as a result of the new noise ordinance, or the moves towards having more thoughtful growth in downtown, run again!  We could have retro-Olympia-Council.  Either that, or paint a mural.

I get that people think some of these things are a waste of time. I don't think they take that much time, and waste it in lieu of what is never mentioned beyond "city business" whatever that actually is. To me, raising building hieights is a waste of time. But I get that. Stuff other people are interested are usually considered to be a waste of time by those who aren't interested in them.

So the ordinance was a waste of time, and really, didn't change a heck of a lot. There are just as many nuclear devices in Olympia today as there were when this was in effect. It sent a message along with other communities that people might not want dangerous things like nuclear reactors around their neighborhoods, but whatever, there aren't likely to be any coming anyway, and when the submarine comes back, I think it will create new avenues for creative protest, and the Port of Olympia always seems to find a way to encourage more of that.

But if the ordinance really did nothing, then what a dumb waste of time was it to take the trouble to repeal it? If you think time was wasted on enacting it then why waste more time on addressing it again? If you think it didn't do anything, then why not just go about your otherwise so-called busy lives of "getting down to real city business?"

Obviously it was something that spurred some passions in some people or it would have just faded away and not been mentioned. So, for people who went to the trouble to go about looking at this issue again, what a waste of time. Do some actual work for a change.

n/t

"RITALIN, so much easier than parenting"

itchyhitch.blogspot.com

Here's a link to a page where you can find video from the Tuesday September 9, 2008 City Council Meeting, see under City Council ... MEETINGS ARCHIVE heading: City of Olympia Council Meeting Video

url: http://olympia.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2

Another thing that is important to ask is this: If there are so many people in this community who oppose the NFZA ordinance, where were they last Tuesday night? Why didn't they show up in their supposedly overwhelming numbers? That is part of the public process in terms of being represented in a contentious issue like this. Please - stand up and make yourself known publicly as being against a law that seeks to remove municipal complicity with the nuclear weapons industry.

A third thing that I would like to mention here is what I have heard is the Council's eagerness to take action on the problem of global warming / global climate disruption. (I admit that I am not well-versed, at this time, on the Council's positions on this issue.) If the Council is enthusiastic about confronting the problems of the City's contribution to global warming and climate change/disruption, then why is the Council apparently less enthusiastic / assertive about confronting the City's contribution to the industry that exists around nuclear weapons?