Friday, January 23, 2009

No Current Aldermen for Mayor

I can not, in good conscience, recommend any of Racine's current aldermen to be the next mayor. Here is why:

I have personally brought to the attention of the entire city council that one of their ordinances is unconstitutional. I have also witnessed several others make nearly identical claims.

Here in the US of A, we have a right to appeal to the judicial branch of government when the executive branch accuses us of something. Remember that separation of powers, three branches of government stuff from civics class? Yet, when Racine's Unified Neighborhood Inspection Team (UNIT) fines residents for various infractions, said residents no longer have the right to state their case in court. Instead, they have to appeal to the same people that fined them in the first place. This is simply not right and it is not how we do things in this country.

I suppose I am just a crank for caring about such things. Even so, when EVERY member of the city council is able to casually dismiss serious charges without, to the best of my knowledge, any attempt to refute said charges, I must conclude that each and every one of them is quite comfortable with curtailing the rights of the citizens they claim to represent.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here, Here, Dennis! I have been saying for years that the unit and its appeal process have taken away the right of due process....
We need someone that will be looking out for ALL of us and not just the "in crown", ofr someone with a personal agenda.
Keep Up the good work.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, should say "in crowd", or someone ...

Got too excited.
thanks

Anonymous said...

...and your solution would be....

Denis Navratil said...

Well for starters not every problem has a solution, but I am hopeful that someone will run for mayor who does not have a history of casually dismissing the rights of citizens. Just curious anon, do you share my concerns?

And thank you for your comments LL.

Anonymous said...

Maybe we can hire Turner. He doesn't do much in Madison anyway.