Editorial in today's Sunday Camera, by my friend Ralph.
If you have registered with the Camera, here's the URL : http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/opinion/article/0,1713,BDC_2401_5065848,00.html The government belongs to citizens Amendment 38 would protect first and second powers By By Ralph Shnelvar October 15, 2006 In its Oct. 12 editorial, the Daily Camera gave reasons that you should not vote for Amendment 38. I want to counter some of those arguments. Alas, space does not permit me to address each one. Readers should know that we had wise framers of our state Constitution. These people had learned by bitter experience that the government, in general, and the legislature, in particular, had been taken over by special interests. They wanted to fix that problem. In Article V of our state Constitution (You should read it!) the framers wrote, "The first power hereby reserved by the people is the initiative ...." The initiative is the process whereby citizens introduce laws that they want. "The second power hereby reserved is the referendum ...." This is the equally important process whereby The People can stop a law from going into effect. The Camera wrote, "The amendment would allow citizens to submit petitions at every level of government, giving political activists new leverage to challenge and possibly undo the decisions of elected officials in counties, towns and local school districts." Yes, Amendment 38 would do that. We desperately need that check on local government. Did you know that it is currently impossible to submit an initiative at the county level? If you are like me and are outraged that the county has spent vast sums of money on insecure voting equipment and you want the county to hand-count votes, there is currently no mechanism to force the county to do so. Amendment 38 fixes that problem. Amendment 38 is a scalpel. If you generally like our county commissioners then you get to keep them at the next election. You also get what you want: hand-counted ballots if a majority of the voters agree with you. Just knowing that an initiative is in the works would give the citizenry a bit more influence on our representatives. The initiative and referendum processes are important checks on out-of-control governments. The mere presence of the referendum process causes our currently out-of-control Legislature to slap an "emergency" clause on the vast majority of bills that they write. A cynical Legislature, by adding this wording to bills, thus constitutionally stops the referendum process. Amendment 38 stops that abuse by limiting the number of emergency bills that any legislative body can pass in a year. The Camera wrote, "Amendment 38 would prohibit any public employee from using public equipment or staff time to 'discuss' pending petitions. Under current law, a public employee may not engage in election advocacy, but they may answer 'unsolicited questions' about ballot issues. Each violation of that proposed ban would be punishable by a $3,000 fine levied on the offending employee and the government entity." What the Camera did not say is that although the law prohibits it the law has no teeth, and thus local governments and officials routinely take advocacy positions and spend money to promote a particular position for an initiative or a referendum. To me and I hope to you it is wrong for government to take tax money to promote a position. It would be like the Boulder City Council voting to contribute funds to the Libertarian Party. Although I'd like that a lot, it would still be wrong. The Camera wrote, "As we've noted before, 38's clear if unstated purpose is to throw sand in the gears of government." This is wrong. To use another mechanical metaphor, the clear purpose of Amendment 38 is to give voters the ability to press on the brakes when the gears of government are being stripped by special interests. Many of you were outraged that the federal government was spending tax dollars to fight Amendment 44 (marijuana decriminalization). I hope you feel equally outraged when government spends its nearly unlimited funds to gore someone else's ox. Just read the Camera's own words from its Sept. 3 editorial: "The question is whether it is proper for a federal worker to invoke his employer's name and use a government phone line and e-mail account to try to defeat a citizen initiative. And the answer is 'no.'" Then form your own conclusion on the merits of limiting the power of government officials to use their office to sway voters. The framers of our state Constitution gave us all a precious gift: The first and second powers reserved to the people. Protect that gift. Pass on that gift to your children by strengthening the process and making it more transparent and fair. Vote a resounding yes to Amendment 38 and give the citizens the tools that our wise framers had in mind. Ralph Shnelvar is a Boulder resident. via --------------------------------------------------------- Evan Ravitz 303 440 6838 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Vote to Ratify the National Initiative at http://Vote.org Photo Adventures: http://Vote.org/photos Gates of Paradise Trips http://Vote.org/paradise "Fool's gold exists because there is real gold." -Rumi
