[Peace] Township poverty referendum news

[Randall Cotton]

Here's the news on the outcome of the City Council meeting effort:

Thanks to:

Mark Enslin
Stuart Levy
Charlotte Green
Janet Wesse
Conrad Wetzel
Martel Miller

who spoke during "Audience Participation".

And

Barbara Kessel
Don McClure
Doug Clough
David Green
Jen Cartwright

who attended as supportive audience (sorry if I forgot anyone)

Including myself, we spoke for 34 minutes. We collectively outlined all
the reasons why the referendum should pass and urged the City Council
members (AKA Township Board members) to state their support for passage,
asking people to vote "Yes".

Here is the video (clips are in chronological order)
Mark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjV_sMEGTkM
Stuart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRgxAxCCSWU
Charlotte: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qHdm3jKAFg
Janet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsfrPd34kJ4
Conrad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n186gkOTjF4
Martel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5a04HDzhCU
Randall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=360vgqPVc0o

And we successfully convinced all City Council members present (Vic
McIntosh and Deb Feinen were absent) to come out on record and the result
was:

5 solidly in support (Marci Dodds, Gina Jackson, Ken Pirok, Tom Bruno,
Michael La Due ) including some remarkably compelling discourse in favor,
especially from La Due, but also from Pirok. Bruno was reluctant to say
anything (he waited until the last minute, after everyone else had spoken,
even the mayor) but the pressure was too much and he did come out squarely
in favor.

1 in lukewarm support - the mayor (who did admit the statistics comparing
Champaign to similar surrounding townships were "embarrassing" - twice, in
fact),  While emphatically endorsing the school referendum then and there,
the most he could bring himself to say on the poverty referendum is that
he "would most likely be voting for it", but that's progress at least.

1 not in support - Karen Foster - she's unfortunately a lost cause on this
issue, I'm afraid. She spent most of her time "thanking" us for our
"passion" and our comments, essentially humoring us in my opinion, but
declined to support the referendum - she equivocated: "I feel it's up to
citizens to make that choice". She mentioned, apparently in defense, that
she supports the poor through Empty Tomb and food banks, which suggests
she thinks that's the only appropriate way to support the poor. I wonder
if she'd be content if township assistance were abolished.

Here is the video (clips are in chronological order)
Michael La Due: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDKsOJOQJoE
Karen Foster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLRv13inUGs
Gina Jackson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgo6-H_ybHY
Ken Pirok: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVVJSLK1w78
Marci Dodds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8IOqiC-KFg
Mayor Schweighart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T2mgOLfcX4
Tom Bruno: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1SwlgoNOhw

Vic McIntosh has stated his support to me in person, but I don't think
he's made any public statement. Deb Feinen at first declined to support it
when I first talked to her in person, but recently did change her position
(as of yesterday) and now supports it, though again there's as yet no
public statement from her that I'm aware of.

The City council members spoke on the matter for 30 minutes, almost as
long as we did (and thankfully the meeting is playing twice a day all week
long on cable channel 5, as usual). So we have 8 of 9 township board
members more or less on record in support. Some emphatically in support.

But when all  is said and done, that's only 8 votes on Election Day.
What's needed now is to leverage the City Council's stated support (even
from more conservative members) and the educational materials (articles,
audio, video, flyers) we already have to raise awareness and educate the
public. We need to get the audio and video onto public access media (and
spread around the Internet), we need to get reporters to cover the issue,
we need to get into the media ourselves (with letters to the editor,
call-ins to radio shows, etc.) and I think another important prong would
be to organize a press conference of supportive organizations. More on all
this (and how you can help) in a separate post.

R