Direct Election Forum

The were two sides to the debate tonight. 1/2 was very spirited. The other 1/2 was calm, reasoned and matter of fact.

Bill McCalpin seems to have been hiding parts of his personality over the years, the fire-breathing, Southern Baptist preacher who, tonight, was preaching about the Armageddon Richardson faces if this proposition passes Nov. 6th.

As for Darrell Day, his presentation was just as calm and mild mannered as McCalpin's was emotional.

McCalpin did go on about the Texas Constitution for a little bit, and about how it is not suppose to be read literally. It evolves over time to mean different things at different times. He seems to take a liberal point of view that words don't mean what they say, but rather words mean what we want them to mean and that meaning changes over time. He seems to be OK with not taking the words of the Constitution literally.

But his attitude changed when reading the proposed charter change. He pointed out more than 30 instances of where errors in the proposed charter change will leave the city fighting lawsuits for years to come, if passed. He seems to recommend and advocate the constitution should be read with a grain of salt, but the proposed charter change should be read literally and not read with the overall intent. (pssst, really, I couldn't have written an better)

The question about when the next change to the charter could be made, not until after more than two years. That is sad, in a way. It is sad because back in February the city council had the opportunity to form a charter review commission and voted 6 to 1 against doing so. So it seems the next time the charter can be changed is during the next municipal election in 2013. Maybe the city council will decide to start a charter review and prepare for needed changes rather than let this happen again.

Darrell did a good job of talking up the pro side of direct election. It surprised me so much could be said on the pro side. It is fairly simple from my point of view: Direct election makes the mayor more accountable. If the candidate for mayor runs on specific ideas, then that is what that person should try to accomplish if elected.

There were probably about 50-75 people there including all but 3 of the council members. Hartley, Omar and Solomon were not there.

For some it was probably a good meeting and they learned a thing or two. For others it was probably a waste of time. But it was anything but boring. Lots of laugh provided by, well, you know.

:0)

Now, back to vacation until after the elections, I hope.