We start this week with a closer look at an interesting – but rarely invoked – piece of state statute, a law that allows residents to force a vote on changing how local government is run. A petition with as few as 5,000 people could set up a special election to vote on interesting changes.
Voters can change everything from what their city (or town, or village, there’s no legal difference) is called to the number of elected officials (and how long, and what areas, they serve). Voters can also change the kind of power the mayor has, as well as whether or not the mayor is elected or appointed by city council.
How would this work? And what would the ramifications be? We get into it.
Next up, we check in with the North Waterfront Park (a.k.a. the Live Nation amphitheater). In 2016, when the park part of the $30 million parks bond, officials expected the park to be open and operating by spring 2019. As we move into late summer, residents are asking: what’s the status of the park.
Other questions include whether the city’s sponsorship program – allowing individuals and corporations to put their name on everything from the park and venue itself down to smaller facets of the project, including benches, trees, and shrubs (yes, really). It’s unclear if anything beyond unreleased ‘verbal agreements’ have been finalized, or how much money the city has brought in to help address its multi-million dollar budget shortfall for the park.
Lastly, we revisit the murders of Allison Jackson Foy and Angela Rothen. Foy disappeared 13 years ago, her remains were found alongside Rothen’s the following year. Since then, law enforcement have had one main suspect, Timothy Iannone, who was released from a prison sentence (for unrelated charges) on Christmas Day, 2018.
We dug up an unreported incident involving Iannone, and reflect on how the case against him failed to reach critical mass (District Attorney Ben David has declined to convene a grand jury). Foy’s family hopes that deep dives like this will help locate new witnesses, who – for whatever reason – did not come forward in the early years of the case.
If you missed any of these stories, you can catch up below. Then take a deeper dive with our weekly podcast.
