by Holly Hootman

Councilman Benny White’s Statement is the most clear statement on #OptIn or Opt Out Vote on Tuesday Sept 3, 2019 since their meeting.  The PRESS has mixed up the Councilmembers positions as well as a referendum on March 17, 2020 Ballots in Naperville. Thank you Councilman White for the clarity on this important decision to sell Regulated Legal Cannabis to Adults in Naperville.

Councilman White’s Statement: facebook.com/1736669219992805/posts/2400020773657643

Some have mentioned they were having trouble sharing my post. Here it is again without the article.From Councilman White:

I want to express my thanks to the many residents who attended the Naperville City Council Meeting on Tuesday, September 3, 2019, and weighed in on the cannabis discussion. As I said then and I reiterate now, this was a great demonstration of what makes our country so great, the right to free speech.

As far as the discussion on Tuesday, I empathize with the community members who have concerns about what opting-in would do to our community. As a former school board member and the father of two, now young adults, I understand entirely the need to protect our kids. However, most of the concerns voiced by the opt-out side dealt with legalization. The reality is whether we like it or not; it is coming to Naperville, and many of the concerns (whether they are founded or not) will be realized regardless if Naperville opts-in or opts-out. Our state legislature has already made the decision to legalize the sale of recreational cannabis by voting into law the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (CRTA) that goes into effect on January 1, 2020. CRTA legalizes and regulates the production, consumption, and sale of recreational cannabis in Illinois.

So, what do we do about it? We could say we are not going to sell cannabis, but the truth is residents will acquire it legally (potentially low consumer protection standards) or illegally (with no standards). It is for this reason that I have been a proponent for opting-in.

During our deliberations on Tuesday, a proposal was made by Councilwoman Sullivan and supported by most of the council members that because of the divisiveness around this issue, we should let the community decide if they want to opt-in or opt-out by bringing the vote to a referendum. Although I am not a proponent of referendums because I believe elected officials are elected to make decisions, I felt it was the best option in this case.

To take the issue to a referendum, the city attorney instructed the Council we would have to opt-out for now and direct staff to come back with language for a proposed referendum, along with a date that would be appropriate and feasible. The vote went 6-3 in favor of opting-out for the reason of having a referendum. The three “no” votes were okay with a referendum but wanted the motion to include a proposed timeframe for the March 2020 primary elections. I understood that we could not legally vote on a date because this issue was not on the agenda. Therefore, I voted yes knowing that I would vote to support the March 2020 timeframe when we could appropriately do so.

Bottom line is this – the media appears to have missed the context of our discussion and wrote we opted-out 6-3 with little mention of a referendum. The more accurate story is that we voted 6-3 in favor of a referendum in which we had to “officially” opt-out to do so. The three “no” votes were also in favor of a referendum but wanted language to include the March 2020 date.”

The room was FULL and Opt Out had tons of people there and there was a lot of misinformation spoken and it’s understandable that the Press is confused.  So Marijuana will be on a Naperville Ballot sometime in the near future and I looks like they are pushing and have the votes for March Primary 2020 ballots.

• Kevin C: Opt Out
• John K: Opt Out
• Theresa S: Opt Out suggesting Referendum on March 17, 2020
• Patrick Kelly: Opt Opt Agreeing with Theresa Sullivan’s Suggestion To do a referendum.
• Judith Brodhead: Prefers Opt In but will go with a referandum
• Benny White: Leans towards Opt In but leaning to Referandum
• Patti Gustin: Opt Out
• Paul Hinterlong: Opt Out

Video of the Meeting that again went past Midnight.

Petition season has begun for all non-presidential candidates (presidential petitioning starts October 7th).  If we want candidates, we need to give them a hand getting on the ballot. Anyone over the age of 18 by 11/3/2020, who is a citizen, who lives in Illinois can be a collector. Please check out this video podcast to learn how.

Also, please check out this document that explains how to gather petitions.

At the PC meeting on Thursday 9/5, judicial candidate David Stevens shared his experience and summarized the rules of circulating petitions. (He will also talk about petitions at our Sept.16 LTDO meeting.) Here is a summary of his information.

We have 3 drop off locations for candidate materials like petitions, walk cards, business cards, and yard signs. Please treat the hosts with respect as they are just volunteers trying to help get Democrats elected. (Ultimately it is up to the hosts to carry your literature as we are all volunteers.) Please try not to be going after 10PM and before 6AM because you will be waking their dogs up (and by extension their families). If you want our PCs to have your literature it is your responsibility to get it to a drop point or a meeting.

1. Holly Hootman has a bin for literature and petitions. She has a place for yard signs on her front porch. She lives very close to our normal meeting location (DuPage Unitarian Church) at 25W220 Lacey Ave Naperville, IL, 60563.  Her email is HollyHootman@sbcglobal.net.
2. Joe Heneghan has a bin for literature and petitions. He has a place for yard signs on his front porch. He lives at 8520 Shagbark Ln., Woodridge, IL, 60517. His email is joseph.heneghan@yahoo.com.
3. Peggy Nasti, our PC Coordinator, has a porch she can have yard signs on. Please ring the doorbell at a decent hour as most of her stuff will likely be in her garage.  She lives at 695 Sterling Ct., Naperville, IL, 60540.  Her email is ptnasti@wideopenwest.com.

Your help is much appreciated in getting choices for representation!

Okay, we all enjoy “slack”, but this is about Slack the app. ?There will be a Slack podcast episode to help explain it within the next week.

We all get too many emails from too many people in election season, they are hard to organize and you can not do project collaboration with those not on an email chain.  In a large group one team maybe doing work that impacts or effects another but if you don’t know what the right hand is doing you are kind of missing the right hand. Slack is like a collection of bulletin boards (“Channels”) which you can join or ignore according to your needs. You can also have ad hoc private conversations with one or more other members.  Members and PCs will be able to know where the event team or PC team or any other team is with their lasted stellar planning.

A Slack “workspace” has been set up for LTDO and PCs and team members have been sent out a number of invitations. If you receive an invitation, please accept it and give it a try because in the free Slack plan the number of invitations we can send is determined by the acceptance rate.

There is a knack for using Slack that takes some experience to acquire, and the more people try it out, the faster we can all be on the same page during this critical election cycle.  This is the best free option to communicate in an organized manner that allows us all to be on the same page. If you need help, bring it to a meeting and someone (Mark of Diane) will help you with it, or contact Mark at mjspieglan@gmail.com Thanks!

Don’t bother downloading the Mueller Report from the Department of Justice; it’s not searchable and searchable versions are widely available. Here are some good options:

• Online reader
• Downloadable PDF
• Free audio version
• Summary by David Cole of the ACLU

Finally, here’s a really good graphic summary. Data and analysis from Quinta Jurecic, Managing Editor of Lawfare; Jurecic’s original analysis and graphic (check it out!) reworked by @yammerjaw .