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A maximum of five CS voters are allowed to collect signatures. Now cyphering can be a bit tricky, but even using the city's estimated population of 90,000, that means that only one in every 18,000 people can actually possess a petition. Reckon there are 40,000 registered voters, so that means that only one out of every 8000 voters can carry a petition. Wow. That maximum of five registered voters may have been adequate in 1963, but geeze, Louise, we are well into the 21st century folks. (Note to CS people-- another item to review on your city charter this coming spring.)
That being said, they asked for our help. Being neighborly-like we said sure. After being called names, we worked with the new City Secretary (wonderful woman, by the way) and SHE prepared the petitions, which is great cuz their attorney can't cry foul on those! A person donated the use of her parking lot for us to set up shop and we were in business.
Gosh. The outpouring of support and signatures from the good people in College Station was simply astounding. And it's not just one 'type' of person signing. We've seen all ages from 19 to 99!! That's right! One of the signers will celebrate the century mark in a few days! People stopping by on lunch break from an hourly wage job, professors, homemakers with kids in tow, people who've lived in College Station for 40 years and some who've been here for four months. All seemed intent and concerned about the direction of their city. Kinda like lots around the nation have been concerned over the direction the nation is heading. Well, that got moved in the right direction in the November election!
But see, turning tail and changing direction on a promise don't sit well with most folks in College Station. The expect folks to mean what they say and do while campaigning. I think this latest action just topped off their anger quota and they intend to make things right in their town.
So you can all help the citizens of College Station take back their town and grant Wellborn a few months reprieve. If you are a CS voter, you can sign the petitions (for all or just some of 'em) at Walton and Texas next to Military Depot on Monday and Tuesday, Dec 13-14, from 10 to 6. The weather's been nice, but we know that'll change around here! So we are going indoors starting Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, then from 10-7 on Thursday.
So, stop by our new base of operations (Heck, we'll come to you if you let us know). We'll be moving to the Northern corner suite in Park Plaza Shopping Center, next to Little Caesar's. (Lots of folks call it the Lacks Center, but sadly they are leaving). That way, we'll be inside out of the weather and the dark.
If you are not a CS voter and want to help, go to the website set up by the CS voters, SaveWellborn.org and send them a message. Course you can just stop in too. And money donations are gratefully accepted. You can also pick up your own Save Wellborn t-shirt for a $10 donation.
See you in town next week!
Doris Wellborn
Glad to see www.SaveWellborn.com is moving right along..
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they've corrected the story (or added a different one on KBTX). The one they had up first was saying Wellborn was recalling them; I figured some CS people had to be involved too. It is truly aggravating having City Council and the Mayor ignore our (College Station residents') wishes and just assume we agree with them (or figure it doesn't matter what we think). They could've avoided a lot of this and made everyone happy, done a good job of representing their own constituents if they'd have had a little vote in CS to ask what we wanted them to do about Wellborn: a) let you vote about incorporation, b) annex you, c) do nothing (as they'd been doing for a while and had claimed they were going to keep doing). I, for one, would have voted to say let Wellborn vote on their own incorporation. I don't want CS expanding any more. I'm from Dallas, and if I wanted to live in a big city like Dallas or Houston, I'd go back there. I'm glad there are separate petitions for each council person because I think it's possible Ms. Lyles could see reason (except for the vote about Wellborn, she's been pretty good), but some of the others could go for sure (namely Crompton). I'm also disappointed that the Mayor sang one tune before getting elected and has been acting different since then. I haven't read the article in the Eagle, but I saw a headline where the mayor was calling this recall effort blackmail. I don't know that it is or not, but it ought to be a wake-up call to Council that their residents are sick of being ignored. On recall, though; this is just a preliminary step, right? If you get enough signatures, then there will need to be an election to go with it, right? So, if enough signatures come through, there'd be a recall election for each, and all CS residents can vote on which ones they'd like to recall? If they do get recalled, I wonder who'll replace them.
ReplyDeleteI hope y'all are still monitoring this blog. I'm guessing you get an email when someone comments. Anyhow, there is one good thing about the recall elections being held May 14. If it turns out that College Station City Council decides to annex Wellborn this Thursday, anybody in Wellborn who is registered to vote will be eligible to vote in that election because you'd be in College Station at that time. You have to be registered one month before an election in order to vote in it, so if you know anybody in either Wellborn or College Station who isn't registered to vote yet, get them to register in the next few days just in case. If you wait until after the City Council meeting, it would be too late, but if you're registered by April 14 (in the daytime), you ought to be ready to go on May 14 just in case. If you're not annexed, then you're just registered to vote for anything else that you might want, but if you do wind up getting annexed, you and anybody else who gets registered between now and the 14th should be able to participate fully in that recall election, and I know you'll get folks to turn up at those May elections. Now's the time though to make sure everybody's registered. Also, in case it comes up, as far as Texas is concerned, people who've served time can also register to vote; once they've served their time, completed their parole, etc., they can vote in Texas elections (not federal; think they have to write to the president if they want to get their federal voting abilities back), so if you go asking people if they're registered and someone says they can't because they have something on their record, just find out if they've taken care of it; if they've served their time, paid their fees, etc., you can get them registered to vote too. And, Wellborn folks would be eligible to run for office in the fall, so if the mayor and council members get recalled, they could get replaced by Wellborn folks (if CS annexes). CS City Council doesn't seem to think of these consequences, but there they are. Time is of the essence. I've seen signs up about voting yes on recall, but I haven't seen anything reminding people they need to be registered (and Wellborn folks ought to register too, just in case).
ReplyDelete