No Change of Gov't Referendum

Well, that's all over (for the moment).

Changing the structure of municipal government is not something that should be done lightly and right now I can't say there's much more than tepid inclination to do so. If I'm wrong, a well-signed petition will say otherwise.

Now, what's up with the multiple choice aspect of the referendum question?

The measure would have asked voters to choose from four options including keeping the current form of council-manager government, or changing to an elected mayor with either aldermen elected from districts, at-large, or a combination of both.

I thought the original referendum question was going to be a binary Mayor-or-no-Mayor type thing?

What good would a referendum that resulted in only a plurality do, since that's basically what this type of question is setting itself up for? Say there was a referendum in the spring and option (C.) -- whatever it was going to be -- won with 41% ... then what? It would be impossible to seriously push for a change without a majority consensus.

If people are serious about getting a change in the form of municipal government they should get to Kinko's then start hitting the pavement with petitions affixed firmly to their clipboards. Right now there's simply not enough evidence of a groundswell of support for a change (and the NW's online poll doesn't count because I voted like six times on that one which should be proof enough, among other perfectly valid reasons, that it's not exactly a scientific public opinion poll).