At the Norfolk City Council meeting on Tuesday, November 17th, 2008 at 2:30 PM, the council will attempt to remove all references to a recall election from the city charter. In other words, if we don’t like what a council member has done, we can do nothing about it. There will be no way to remove a member from office except by court-order, an expensive, time-consuming proposition. Additionally, they want to up the number of signatures needed to get something on the ballot, from 4,000 to 8,000. If you can and you care about the future of your city, please attend this meeting to show your feelings toward this underhanded attempt at keeping their seats for eternity.

To Norfolk City Council: A good leader is not concerned with methods of removal, because he knows that by his own virtue, he will be re-elected. A good leader is not afraid of being removed. In fact, a leader who truly cares about the city he leads, would fight to keep any and all means of challenging his own seat. The failure of challengers strengthens a leader’s credibility. The lack of challengers does not mean that a leader is good, but rather that people have resolved to accepting a poor leader. Norfolk City Council, you should only be afraid of a recall election if you have done something that you know that the citizens would be angered by. Furthermore, making it more difficult to get an item on the ballot only reinforces to the residents that the Council is afraid that the residents are going to try to remove them from office. How frequently have residents gotten the required 4,000 signatures for a referendum? Not many. Why would you need to increase that number?

To Norfolk Residents: Please vote against any council member in your area that votes in support of this proposed change. We need leaders that are afraid that their actions have consequences. We need leaders who are afraid of the population. This keeps them honest and voting inline with the feelings of their constituents.