Friday, April 10, 2015

Fish out of Water, letter to the editor

I had that total deer in the headlights look during ACRA's Ref1 debate. I'm not a politician or a lawyer and yet there I was talking about about Ref1. 

Thanks to ACRA


Maybe that's the point. I'm Joan Q. Public- the person Ref1 is supposed to rely on the scare Council into doing the right thing. Scary scary me, the Aspen Voter. Oh goodie.

So after 40 minutes of quoting legalese and rehashing past Council meetings which left me completely in the dust there was finally a question which I could understand.  What if Mountain Rescue was built inside the City limits? How would Ref1 effect the code variances necessary to have a functioning Mountain Rescue Station?  Finally, down to something I can evaluate. It was that simple "up or down" vote question to which I'm supposed be able to deliver a definitive answer without knowing all 524 pages of code. Mountain Rescue=good. Mountain Rescue close by= better. Mountain Rescue built with no delay due to public vote= yep, that would be my choice. (Lest we forget it costs the City $20K every time we have a "special election")


Not the first time we've had a 60' fire tower in town either…. (and above Durant Street)



How would Ref1 effect the code variances necessary to have a functioning Mountain Rescue Station inside the City limits? It might have been a caffeine deficit but I swear I heard two lawyers- two pro Ref1 lawyers- say "I can't answer that question".

Whaaaaaaaaa?????? 

If no-one can answer how Ref1 would effect a hypothetical permit under current code how do you expect me to vote on the Referendum?  That's the question isn't it- how does this Referendum work in real life? I wish both sides would concentrate on that instead of rehashing ordinances, code, zoning,  past council meetings and trying to predict how the threat of voter participation will alter human behavior. But hey, I'm not a politician or a lawyer,  I'm just Joan Q. Public.


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