Aug
21
Written by:
Steve Erbach
Thursday, August 21, 2008 6:17 PM
This speech was delivered at the August 20th Neenah City Council meeting. I had intended to speak at the Public Services and Safety Committee meeting on August 9th, but that meeting was canceled:
In the rush to throw myself in front of the bus of the August 6th Council vote on Ordinance 1374, I didn't fact check adequately...meaning: I was wrong. Two facts would have been apparent if, given time, I'd questioned the proper people:
1) The permit mentioned in Ordinance 1374 would NOT be subject to approval by the Council. To acquire a permit for a newspaper vending machine the vendor would go through a process similar to acquiring a building permit. That's according to Community Development Director Buckingham.
2) The manufacturer of newspaper vending machines mentioned in the ordinance is not intended to be the sole provider. The proposed ordinance states "manufactured by Sho-Rack, or equivalent".
I apologize -- a little -- for those mistakes.
I'd like to mention that I contacted the editor of The Scene magazine via email last week. I directed him to the on-line text and audio of my speech before the Council on the 6th of August. I also wrote this:
"I thought it was curious that none of the companies that have placed newspaper vending machines in Neenah had spokesmen at the Council meeting. Considering that if the ordinance is passed each vendor will have to spend nigh onto a thousand dollars for the machine, installation, liability insurance, and the permit fee, I was surprised that none of you showed up."
The editor, Jim Lundstrom, replied: "If Neenah wants to soak us in order to distribute our newspapers to the public via vending machines, then I imagine we will stop distributing via machines in Neenah and move the machines to the friendlier city of Menasha...of course, only after we do a story about the policy and the people behind it."
He also wrote that he'd written to the Public Services and Safety Committee members but hadn't heard back from any of them.
I have read the League of Wisconsin Municipalities' comment on publication requirements for municipalities. I've also examined Wisconsin statute 985 regarding publication of legal notices.
I wondered what would have happened if ordinance 1374 had been passed on August 6th? Each and every one of the newspaper vendors would most certainly have been contacted by the Department of Community Development to be told that their newsracks were no longer in compliance with the new ordinance. I suspect that the vendors would be given a deadline in order to comply with the law or remove the offending machines from the public right of way.
What is ... disappointing is that no effort was expended BEFORE August 6th to tell any of these companies that they'd be on the hook for nearly a grand for each box they wanted to place if the ordinance were passed.
Yes, the Council agendae are published on the Neenah city web site. But my big question is this: How is a citizen or an organization supposed to find out that a proposed ordinance might come down like a ton of bricks and make formerly legal conduct illegal? What guidelines require that a PROPOSED action by the City Council be published in something other place than just in the agenda for the meeting during which a vote is to be taken?
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