Not again—Let people vote, says D10's Rich Crowley
D10 Leadership Coalition's Rich Crowley says we've seen it all before: in 2022, SJ City councilmembers deprived San Joseans (D8, 10) of their rights to select their representative. The same actors are at it again, Crowley says, attempting to ram through an appointment process instead of elections to fill the vacant D3 seat. From an email sent to residents.
Nearly two years ago the San Jose City Council denied voters in Districts 8 & 10 the opportunity to select their own Councilmember when they decided to appoint replacements for two incumbents who moved on to higher positions. The City Charter allows them to appoint or schedule a special election, but they chose to ignore a long-term precedent of District Voters deciding. The stated reason: Save Money.
I ask you, “What price is democracy?”
In fact, Council's purported Open & Transparent process of 2022-23 in making the final decision was anything but that. Several, well qualified, individuals did not make it past the first round of cuts and were never told why they were eliminated. Ultimately, this process smacked of insider dealing and undue influence from outside special interests. As a result, both Districts’ residents were unable to exercise their democratic right to choose through the voting process.
With the recent resignation of disgraced District 3 Councilmember, Omar Torrez, we see the same coalition of Councilmembers coming together to rush through the appointment of yet another special interest candidate before the end of the year. This would allow current councilmembers, including those termed out at the end of December to determine who serves District 3 for the next 2 years. The wheels of government that seem to turn so slowly when you or I have a problem, would shift into high gear to impose their will and those of special interests on the 100,000 residents of District 3.
People can visit http://www.letmevotesj.org for actions they can take to persuade the council into doing the right thing, the moral thing, the democratic thing by demanding that they use a special election to choose the next District 3 representative.
— Rich Crowley is the current Chair of the District 10 Leadership Coalition. He has continuously served his community through various volunteer organizations and local government since the 1970s.
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