If Mayor Taylor had his wish, this referendum question wouldn't be in existence, or be up for consideration at tonight's Common Council meeting. Based on the one-and-a-half hour discussion at last night's Committee of the Whole on this topic, I got two things out of it:
- This question will be on the ballot
- The aldermen (and Mayor Taylor) think it will fail miserably
Yes, you're reading that correctly, and that's why it makes absolutely no sense in my mind to even put it on the ballot in the first place if the outcome is already predicted as negative. The only alderman refusing to surrender to that thought is CCP Steve Taylor, who would argue with his supporters that the question is necessary and that voters need to decide.
For the record, I think the other aldermen get both of those points. If they don't, then they were pretty dense last night.
With that said, there no need in beating this issue up tonight - CCP Taylor wanted his votes, and he has them. I just pray that when the council agenda comes to this item, there won't be another hour-and-a-half discussion on it. Simply put, there is no need, and why on earth would the aldermen want to waste breath in repeating their positions all over again.
What will be interesting is how aldermen intend on "educating" all of us, the residents of Franklin, on why a full time mayor is a good thing for the community and why they should vote YES in November. Given their, um, "enthusiasm" last night about this, I suspect the only alderman to be doing any such "education" will be CCP Taylor. I mean, the other aldermen have already put a lot of commitment in the notion that the referendum will fail before it was even created...
