Nerk Informer

I’ve reached my goal of 100 signatures and will be turning in the petitions today. Due to Martin Luther King Day yesterday, there is a council meeting this evening. However, there are three other conflicting meetings tonight and I will likely be unable to attend Council as a result. Truthfully, I didn’t want to miss any Council meetings – especially as I campaign to sit on Council this year -, but one of the conflicting events is a gathering being held at the Downtown Library involving a proposed “Green New Deal” for the City of Newark and Licking County. I plan on attending that to hear what the host has to say. Tonight is also a board meeting for the Freedom School of Licking County, of which I am a board member. Lastly, there is a party meeting that I wanted to attend; even if I can only do so briefly.

To be honest, I will try to attend all four in some way, but the road conditions may prevent me from doing so. We shall see. In the meantime, there are some things to think about regarding tonight:

1) The Service Committee will be considering two measures tonight which will include the emergency clause. Afterwards, Council also placed BOTH of those measures on the Full Council agenda later in the evening wherein they plan to invoke “Rule 11” to streamline both measures through within less than 3 hours after they have been publicly proposed and discussed. I understand the need for emergencies, but this is precisely why I was opposed to the change in Council’s schedule. Very hard to hold Council accountable if ANY measure is proposed and passed all in the same night. You can count on me bringing this up more in the future.

2) The Mayor’s State of the City is due soon. I could have sworn that I heard the Mayor would be delivering this address tonight, but it is not on the agenda. Perhaps he will deliver it at the first February meeting. It is one of the reasons I absolutely wanted to attend. If I happen to miss it, I will watch the meeting’s youtube video and give my thoughts here afterwards. It will be interesting to see what the Mayor says in what could be his last address should he not seek a third term or if he loses to Councilman Blake in the fall.

3) The Street Committee will be featuring a discussion on a proposed change to 1st Street in the Works museum area. I’m very interested in this discussion. Since I will miss the opportunity to attend this important discussion, I will be watching the video and possibly commenting on it further, depending on what they say.

More updates to come soon!

Here are this week’s documents:

Link to see Council Minutes and Agendas

Link to see School Board Documents

This Week’s Meetings

Full Council

Finance

Capital Improvements

Service

Street

Economic Development

Stay Tuned…