Only the first 10 pages are the true application. The remaining pages are the ordinances themselves on the process and restrictions on selling package liquor. 15 pages of well studied ordinances.
Well studied by the town government...but not us. For the entire time the process was going on not a single draft of the ordinances were online for people to peruse. Only AFTER did a copy come online for people to see what the town government has decided is good for us. So benevolent of them.
I'm not sure what pisses me off more. The fact that such a simple act as posting draft ordinances online to show respect to the residents of Smyrna is not done, or the fact that I have brought this to their attention several times in my column and here and they still do not do it.
When I went and had my two head moment at the town council one of the reasons they turned my idea down was the local towns. Other localities were not doing it, so why should Smyrna. A bad premise in my view, but let's use it in this case as they seem to like it.
The Nashville government has a section called "Ordinance index" where the full wording of most ordinances are posted BEFORE the finally pass. ORDINANCE NO. BL2009-480 is a good example. Here is the posted history of the item.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORYAnd here is the proposed ordinance in full.
Introduced: June 2, 2009
Passed First Reading: June 2, 2009
Referred to: Planning Commission
Planning & Zoning Committee
Passed Second Reading:
Passed Third Reading:
Approved:
By:
Effective:
As hot an issue as the package liquor sales were I was very disappointed that a proposed copy was not put online for people to read. While I was disappointed...I was not surprised. That bothers me the most. When you hope they do it but know deep down that it's not going to happen. I dislike such a pessimistic view when it comes to local government action.
1 comment:
I live in Smyrna, but I work for another city in Middle Tennessee and in our experience, if you put a draft ordinance on the city's website, people take it as gospel. It doesn't matter how many warnings you put up on the page to let them know it's just a draft.
If you want a copy of an ordinance, go down to city hall and ask for a copy - they have to give it to you - it is an open record. At the very least, I'm sure you could e-mail someone at city hall and maybe they would e-mail you a copy.
The law does not require cities to post any information on a website, except for the city charter, so be grateful for what you can get online. Some cities are better at it than others.
I know Metro puts these types things on their website and I like the way they do it, but THIS ISN'T METRO. It drives me crazy when people compare smaller cities to Metro. They have many more resources and employees than the smaller cities. Of course they are going to have more. They also pay a lot more in taxes. Take your pick. You get what you are willing to pay for.
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