Pyroclastic Event!

Measure C did not 'go down in flames'. It was the victim of a pyroclastic event, it appears.

From the 'Final Results' on the L.A. City Web site for voting results comes the following:

Measure C

YES: 1,825 or 27.73% of the vote

NO; 4,757 or 72.27% of the vote.

According to the Web site there are 27,800 registered voters in our city. There will be a few more votes tabulated, but I don't think the difference in percentages will change all that much.

A total of 6,582 votes were counted, giving us a 23.67% voter turnout for the measure.

I am very comfortable with that turnout when considering the other ballot spots and I think the voters who were interested enough to vote, provided fine representative service to the rest of our residents.

I am not ready to consider all the whys and what ifs about the results right now. I don't know yet what the results truly mean but I think they will become more well know when we find out who is running for the three City Council seats.

I won't condemn Measure C as being rushed, but it was bulldozed through and that is probably just as foul as being rushed.

I don't know whether fear or mistrust really played any part in the defeat because the five C.C. members who supported it were voted into office by more than just the folks who clobbered the charter to super defeat.

Today, the city did not go broke, fall into any canyon, give more money back to Sacramento, or had blood smeared on Council Chambers.

Today, things got a bit more interesting because now we can put the charter to bed for a few years and start really talking about who will run for the three seats up for grabs.

This coming Tuesday there will be a meeting of our City Council with our city remaining a general law city. That same Tuesday we will still have millions of dollars in 'emergency' funds this Council helped establish and maintain.

This Tuesday MAY be the first 'real' public opening of comments regarding an most-probably vote on increasing sewer fees in our city. That means that we may get to finally hear or read the positions from our five Council members how they stand on placing onto the ballot a measure that would increase a tax or fee. This will be a hot item to add and I will have lots more to write about it, in the near and far future.

Yesterday, as Terri and I became the 15Th and 16Th voters to mark ballots, I asked Terri to watch me as I put my thumb and right index finger pinching my nose as I marked the YES circle on my inkavote ballot. It turns out that she voted YES also, but I didn't ask her to or ask her to vote NO.

I hope the vast majority of the 6,582 voters who were counted as voting on the measure did so with the best and most complete knowledge available. If that was done, then I think we can and should be pleased and proud of those who voted, using knowledge over fear or intimidation.

I think that when a new charter measure come up, probably in 8 years or so, we will have another majority of intelligent and interested voters voting on it and whatever the outcome of that vote is, it will be based on what is best for our residents, by our residents, and for our city.