Privatization Meeting

Got to the water privatization meeting about fifteen minutes before it ended so just got the tail end of stuff. Apparently at the height of things there were between 100 and 200 people there (counts were inaccurate though the crowd extended down the Longbranch hallway), including Councilpeople Haynes, Pohlmann and Fritzler. Even the cause of all the rukus, Mayor Cole, showed up for about an hour, acting fairly ingenuous, or so I was told. He came prepared with about 50 copies of the proposal he had ran first by the Southern Illinoisan's editorial board, then before the city council. He then listened quietly as the mike was opened for attendees to speak, most of whom spent their time at the mike bashing the Mayor and the privatization proposal. After awhile, I guess even Mayor Cole got tired of the continual attacks and told the crowd they could continue to bash him, but he wouldn't be listening anymore, at which point the event's organizers offered the Mayor a turn at the mike.

The Mayor told the crowd that they were getting worked up over nothing, this was just a proposal, and there was no chance it would even be passed, which is certainly an interesting to look at it given the amount of discussion given to the privatization option in the proposal. Options A,B, C, D, and F get a total of two pages while the privatization option gets three pages all to itself.

After the mayor spoke his piece, there was more discussion about why privatization was a BAD THING and a petition was passed around, which garnered some 200 signatures opposing the proposal. From what I gather, Councilpeople Fritzler and Pohlmann have said they oppose the proposal, Haynes and McDaniel are neutral, and Jack and Wissmann's views are uncertain.

I'm expecting a loooooong city council meeting on Dec 1 as I bet there will be a lot of citizen comments on the privatization proposal.