Mayor’s Row…………….by Ned Mitchell

                Every 20 years Illinoisans are treated to the opportunity to vote on have a constitutional convention or not.  The last time we had a constitutional convention was in 1970.  We had the opportunity to vote on the question twenty years ago and voted down the idea.  I find it extremely disturbing that most of the opponents of the question this year were around back then telling us we never had it so good and that we should not change anything.  I thought maybe it would be a good idea to do a list of the top ten reasons on why those of us who pay the bills in this state should vote to call a constitutional convention in this year’s November General Election.  Here they are;

                !.  Governor “I’m Next” Rod Blagojevich

                2.  Senate President Emil “I Need A Pay Raise” Jones

                3.  House Speaker Mike “I’ve Been Here Too Long” Madigan

                4.  We need recall/democrats in the State Senate voted that idea down

                5.  Term limits for all elected officials in Illinois

                6.  Eliminate pay raise system for State elected officials

                7.  Eliminate “pay to play” campaign contributions

                8.  Change how we redraw district lines every 10 years

                9.  Cut legislator’s salaries to align them with other Midwestern states

                10. Because you and I need to take back our government

                I am sure there are other reasons for calling a constitution convention and readers should feel free to add their own ideas in.

                We have talked about the constitutional convention concept in this column before and now it appears the debate is starting to heat up.  There are some of us involved who are kicking around the idea of having a round table discussion on the subject at the historic Sesser Opera House in the next few months.  This would be a town hall type meeting that would be open to the public and both those in favor and those opposed to the idea would be invited to share their views.  The audience would be allowed to ask questions of both sides.  It would be an informative meeting with some very well known speakers involved.  Also local State Representatives and State Senators from Southern Illinois would be invited.  They need to weigh in with their thoughts on the question too.

                For whatever it means to anyone I can see no harm in calling for a constitutional convention next year and I can at the same time see where we need to do a lot of changing in Illinois.  We may have a very strong constitution in a lot of respects but we have some serious flaws that are growing by the minute and need to be addressed.

                I’m concerned that the “don’t change a thing-we never had it so good” crowd are about to pony up $3 million dollars to defeat this ballot question this fall.  So far the folks involved in putting up the $3 million dollars in campaign cash are all directly tied to the system that we now have in Illinois.  They are already busy with their scare tactics one of which is to tell all retired teachers they will lose their pension if we have a constitutional convention next year.  Those putting up the cash include labor unions, big business, politicians and others with a vested interest in things as they are now in Illinois.  So far I have not seen anyone on the forefront representing the average Jane and Joe in this state.

                If you would like to be involved in this town hall meeting email nedmitchell@verizon.net or call city hall at 625-3611 or my business at 625-5322.

                Are we trying to make Sesser a gated community without the gates?  One critic who lives here once told us at a city council meeting that all we need to do to make Sesser a complete zoo is to fence the town.  We all laughed and thought that was funny but the speaker was serious!

                Sesser has a lot of things going for it and as I have said before I would surely like to take credit for all good things happening here and not accept responsibility for things gone wrong but truthfully it does not work that way.

                The city has together worked hard to create a great town to live in.  We became the first area town some 20 years ago to adopt the Home Rule form of government so we could pave every street in town.  Next year we will have completed that project.  Over 90 percent of our city streets are permanently paved with asphalt. 

                We became the first town in the area to form a TIF district that incorporates the whole town in an effort to rebuild our housing base and attract new residents to Sesser.  Only time will tell if this experiment works but so far we have attracted a lot of attention to this concept in government.  The TIF concept has worked very well in Marion as they now have 14 of them in operation.

                We became the first town in the area to allow residents to travel on city streets via golf carts and we plan to purchase one for city employees to make their travel easier and more cost effective for the city.  If you will note other area towns have followed Sesser on the Home Rule concept, the TIF district concept and they will I predict follow us on the golf cart ordinance.

                I say all of that to say that we work hard to make things good in Sesser.  That includes city employees, residents, churches, elected officials, and anyone who wants to participate. 

                The gated community concept without the gates is something that we are going to work on diligently in the future.  We now do a criminal background check on new residents coming to Sesser.  We welcome anyone to our town that wants to live in peace with their neighbors.  We will constantly watch those who are of a criminal nature.  All of us are creatures of habit and most of those habits we all possess are hard to break.  If we have a known drug dealer with past convictions of this crime we want to be upfront with your past as you settle in Sesser.  If you have a past history of being a thief, we will watch your every move.

                We are in the process of installing security cameras at various locations in Sesser that will keep us informed as to different types of criminal activity.  Major cities are already using this concept to fight crime and Sesser will join them.  We want to have a safe community for our senior citizens and our children and we are committed to knowing who you are and what your past is as we continue to work together for the good of our community.  All of us have the ability to change and we hope that if you are of a criminal nature and plan on moving to Sesser that you will indeed change.  If you don’t we will be knocking on your door!

                Wedding anniversary congratulations go out to Marlene and Jack Stubblefield who recently celebrated 50 years together.  Even though they don’t look old enough to have 50 years together Marlene assures me that is correct!