To say it was a disappointing Super Bowl is an understatement. We were out played and out coached, but do we vote to get rid of our coaches and players? I don’t think so, but there are some that are blogging just that. I would say they aren’t true 49er fans. We are now joining the other 31 NFL teams saying, wait until next year, and looking for a better offensive line.
I was a little surprised to see myself attacked in last week’s Express by another columnist, Golden Bear Bill. He wrote about me as if he knows me, which was also a surprise. My father liked to say if you wrestle with a skunk you’ll smell like a skunk, so I will try to stick to the facts and not make this personal.
The group that is proposing to limit our city council’s ability to decide our future is organized and is pushing a popular idea by saying just let the people vote. I just happen to think they are wrong and don’t believe you can legislate through ballot initiatives. It is like hitting a problem with a hatchet. If you don’t like the council, run yourself, find someone that thinks like you do and get them to run, or vote for people on the current council that you trust.
If I understand the group’s thinking, they want a vote on any expansion past our current city limits. We have a growth plan, called a general plan, that not only includes what is inside our city limits but also where we think we will grow in the next 20 years, call our sphere of influence. When our city officials plan for current and future costs, they have to consider where we will be in 20 years. I strongly disagree with tying their hands and only allowing them to plan what is within our current city limits.
The idea of limiting the council’s ability to expand our sphere of influence might be more appealing to me, but that isn’t what is being discussed. I am still waiting to see something in writing, by the way. If you have seen anything from this group about the wording of the ballot initiative, please pass it along.
Years ago there was a community group calling themselves Team Winters. We were mostly merchants and worked with the city to come up with a vision plan for our future. We even held a retreat at Lake Tahoe with a professional moderator to help us focus on the issues of the times. Winters was hurting from a down economy and an empty Main Street. I’m sure that most of us still have a box of material that we collected from all the meetings.
I didn’t attend the new group’s get together at the Palms, and maybe I should have, but I’m not seeing them as team players. I support most of what our team at City Hall is doing and will vote for those that have the same vision of Winters that I do, in the upcoming election.
A lot of us think Winters is a special place and it is special because of the people who live here and the people who volunteer to make it a place where we want to live and raise families. Some of those volunteers sit on our city council, planning commission and school board. If you don’t think they are working to make Winters a better place you need to get to know them better.
If you want to throw out our coaches and players after they have helped put a winning team together, I think you are just wrong. We don’t have to say, wait until next year, we are champions, just ask any of our neighboring communities.
Have a good week.
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