By Noah Dawson
Things got pretty heated during the public comment meeting last week. Mike Fisher, a vocal critic of the council, distributed a flowchart which seemed to link Mayor Ginger Nelson to a piece of property near the Civic Center the city went on to purchase at the regular session later that day. The mayor became visibly disgruntled, claiming that the chart had several errors (to my knowledge, the nature of the supposed errors was never clarified). She repeatedly told Mr. Fisher that she was putting him “on notice.”
If anybody should be put on notice, it should be the city council in regards to their ability to get reelected in the May 2019 election.
Things have become so bad under our current council that the list of controversies they have either started, stoked, and/or mismanaged has grown beyond counting. Remember, it was earlier this year that a person was kicked out of a city council meeting for recording it on their phone. Since then, a person has been arrested for clapping, paid parking downtown was approved, the meeting times were shifted around, and multiple major scandals regarding Amarillo Animal Management and Welfare have enraged local citizens. That’s only a tiny sample of the issues to occur under our current council.
But that’s not the only reason why our council should be put on notice regarding their reelection chances. Of the great number of people I’ve met while collecting signatures for the Responsible Amarillo petitions, we helped many of them register to vote. People who were previously indifferent to local politics are now active.
That’s not the only evidence of the growing unrest in our local community. During the midterms, Democrats claimed there would be a blue wave and Republicans claimed there would be a red wave. Both sides did have some victories that night, but we the people had an even bigger victory. In the senate race, Potter and Randall counties had nearly 70 thousand votes cast, compared to just over 40 thousand cast during the last midterm election.
Amarillo City Council, I’m putting you on notice: We the people are ready to vote.
Nelson/Campaign