>>>The obvious answer to both of these questioners is that this has not happened >>>before!
In past decades, there was a City Council election scheduled soon after the redistricting process was done. That changed in the 90's when city voters changed the City Charter to 4-year terms for Council members. And then the State Legislature required that city redistricting wait until they were done with their own redistricting, so the 2001 election had to be done using the old wards. Despite the fact that I disagree with Rep. Kahn's bill, it still seems really disingenuous to impugn her motives for not having done this before, when in fact the situation has never occurred before.<<< FINALLY! Thanks Tim (and Wizard) for offering a reason at least. We could have mitigated this if this had been said in any of the previous discussions. Assuming this is accurate (off to do a little research), then it shortens the time from 15 to 5 or 6 terms, but it's still something I would expect someone with then 20 years in the legislature to have proposed or even talked about. Unless you're saying that people just don't think ahead. The other thing that disturbs me is that if it's being said that holding the elections in 2005 (on the every 4 year schedule) is disenfranchising voters, yet the voters were the ones who decided we should hold elections then, isn't this bill seeking to disenfranchise as well as negate the will of the people twice? It seems to me that the voters decided that we should have elections in this cycle, knowing what it would do, and they voted for the representatives knowing that the ward boundaries would change, and that they might be represented by someone who doesn't live in their ward. Now like some weird legislative kobayashi maru maneuver Phyllis is trying to retroactively rewrite the parameters of the situation.(KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHN!) Shouldn't the "will of the people" prevail? This is what the people (Which Phyllis and her compatriots are claiming to represent by now suing the same people to get early elections, "for the good of the people") wanted, shouldn't that be allow to stand? Or are we supposed to simply surrender the Genesis Device? Jonathan Palmer Who is loving the opportunity to mix pop culture references with serious debate. Victory REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
