the Controversial Committee Report
“We don’t raise sacred cows...we just butcher them.”
“The Booze Tsunami”
Batten down the hatches! The booze tsunami, of hard liquor, is rushing its way to ‘beautiful downtown Irving.’
Yes, dear readers, the hard liquor industry/chain liquor store supporters garnered 18,000 petition signatures for their issue to require the city council to place, on an upcoming agenda, the ability for hard liquor package stores to operate in the city. Currently, hard liquor stores cannot be zoned in the city. And staff of the CCR would like to see this remain that way.
As the City Secretary’s office has verified the petitions submitted, the measure will be placed on the city council’s agenda for either late January or early February. It would register very little to protest at the city council meeting, as they will basically have to follow the city charter by allowing a vote, by citizens, on the issue. In essence, they cannot legally disapprove putting the measure on the May, 2019 ballot for citizens to vote on.
It will take a concentrated effort of citizen groups to come together to defeat this measure. And the time is now to commence this effort. You see, the hard liquor ballot item will be on the same ballot/day as the upcoming city council elections.
It appears, the hard liquor folks wanted this ballot item to be on a day where there would be a large turnout of voters.
Perhaps, did the hard liquor folks also want this issue to reach a conclusion quickly before someone might challenge the collection of petition signatures? From taped and personal encounters mentioned to staff of the CCR, honesty was not strongly featured by individuals collecting the petition signatures.
Being paid $5.00 for each signature obtained might have influenced the motivation for petition pimps to utilize deceptive rhetoric by stating: 1) the City of Irving was responsible for the petition drive; 2) signers were told MADD supported this issue; and 3) you had to sign the petition in order to be able to vote on the issue. All of these items are false.
While some might characterize this as being dishonest, others could relate that some signature gathers outright fabricated facts — the non-PC term for this is lying. The questions remain: did someone (the monied folks behind the petition drive?) coach the individuals to spread these falsehoods; or, how many individuals signed the petitions believing the comments made by the signature collectors?
Be prepared for the flood of political reminder mailings, from the hard liquor industry/chain liquor store supporters, for this May ballot item. After all, they are looking to line their pockets with hard liquor sales, and might care less about what this issue could create for ‘beautiful downtown Irving.’
The ball is in your court.
Isn’t it time for you, your friends , and social groups to take action to preserve ‘beautiful downtown Irving’ from the flood of easily available hard liquor, potential changes in crime statistics, and the degrading of neighborhoods…except those neighborhoods in gated communities?
………..…………………………….Mark Holbrook
