Letter: ‘We the People’ resent the City Council’s majority

Letters on the April 1 election are due March 26. Send your open letter here

To the Editor-

We the People. The first three words of the Constitution established that the people are the source of the government’s power and that the government’s purpose is to serve the people.

Most of our common council members (7 or 8) have forgotten that or chosen to ignore it. They ignore a 2020 survey in which 80% of those polled stated that bike lanes should NOT be added to Business 51, and 77% believed that lane reductions would have a negative impact.

We resent the fact that they spent $30,000 on a traffic safety study that stated that traffic lights at the intersection of Division Street and Fourth Avenue would be safer than a roundabout, and 7 members of the council voted to ignore that. This could create a possible liability for our city.

They are now in a process that is spearheaded by Jacqui Guthrie, 2nd District council member, to take away our voting rights by appointing a city administrator, a person of their choosing, to rubberstamp their decisions. This would cost $200,000 or more. What would our mayor’s role be? He would then become largely ceremonial, his powers taken away and given to the administrator.

Is this because the mayor made the right decision to veto the roundabout at Fourth and Division?

The referendum requiring that expenditure of one million dollars or more has expired. Without a new referendum, we no longer have a say. Now that it has, the Green New Scam majority of council members have voted to increase that amount up to $20 million. By doing that, they can implement phase one of the three-phase Road Diet Plan. This project is estimated to cost up to $60 million. We know the build will cost more because it will be built over years and costs always go up. These people do not care about that because they are not paying for it. We the people are. Sounds like their Vision Zero idea that we should walk, bike, or ride buses to work. Perhaps we could employ some rickshaw drivers too.

Jacqui Guthrie, the apparent leader of the city administrator proposal, did not respond to a request by the Metro Wire to three specific questions and one general question regarding the city administrator but sent a memo to the other common council members that were only obtained by open records requests by the Metro Wire. She states in that memo that the administrator could dig into the weedy cross-departmental topics like reducing our carbon footprint. She likes clean water, as do we all, and wants safe intersections but fails to mention that the council ignored the $30,000 study for traffic lights at Fourth and Division. Our beautiful city is under no threat due to our carbon emissions. Common sense leadership is, and so is our ability to decide who will lead our city going forward.

Jacqui Guthrie was the lone vote against the new fire department training facility, claiming we do not have the funds but somehow thinks more bike lanes and less lanes for vehicle traffic is a more pressing need.

I suggest you look up the articles that the Metro Wire has written covering these issues, it is the only news outlet that does. I implore you to reach out to your alderperson and the mayor if you disagree with having an appointed official rather than an elected mayor lead our city.

Mark Hemmrich
Stevens Point