Co-moderator Hansen energized the crowd (and it was crowded) by pointing out that it is only 719 days until the next general election.
Three victors from the recent election were present for a round of applause. Donna Lasinski was re-elected to the State House of Representatives, Jason Maciejewski will begin his first term on the County Commission and Mara Greatorex will be the rookie on the Dexter Board of Education.
Our first topic concerned the method by which State Supreme Court justices are nominated, elected and replaced. It is a little strange. Candidates must be nominated by a political party but then cannot list their party on the ballot. When running for re-election they get to have Justice of the Supreme Court over their name on the ballot. Judge Fink pointed out that judges who are not considering running again are ‘encouraged’ to resign a little early so that the Governor can appoint a successor who can then run as a incumbent (providing, of course that the current governor is of the same party as the judge). As usual we found that some other states have very different rules.
Fresh from their victory on Proposal Two the Voters Not Politicians folks were looking for suggestions of what to do next with their new found bi-partisan grass roots army. First on the list was to ensure the delivery of the new fair and reasonable district lines. Other suggestions were offered about improving transparency and ranked voting.
We take no joy in Florida’s ballot counting woes but we are pleased that Michigan does it well. Several folks in the room have worked as election inspectors and testified as to how well things were handled, even in the face of very high turnout.
And now for something completely different…… The school board will vote soon on the name of the gnu elementary school currently under construction. The choice has been narrowed down to a couple of alternatives. We normally just ‘listen and learn’ and do not give advice as a group but we veered off course a little and held a secret vote. Only the two school board members (plus Al who was on the board in 1960) were allowed to keep their eyes open while we raised our hands for option one or option two. Usually I say you had to be there to know what happened but in this case you don’t even know what happened if you were there.
The next meeting of the Dexter Forum will on Saturday, December 1 at 8:30 AM at the Dexter Wellness Center.
The Dexter Forum is supported by the Dexter Wellness Coalition as part of the 5 Healthy Towns initiative to “help connect with others in healthy ways”. The purpose of the Forum is to create an opportunity for interested women and men to gather to discuss important issues facing our community. All are welcome on a drop-in basis. The group meets on the first and third Saturdays of the month.
The Forum is co-moderated by Karl Fink and John Hansen.
