But do we get a say?

I found the concluding paragraph in this very long article about the JCI inspired dilemmas facing the St. Louis County School system very interesting for what it implied Duluth ought to be doing about Dr. Dixon’s surprise $32 million in discovered school building funds:

There is one other option — a second referendum to change the use of the bond dollars for other purposes such as remodeling existing schools. According to the statute, bond proceeds may not be spent for a different purpose or for an expansion of the original purpose “without the approval by a majority of the electors voting on the question of changing or expanding the purpose of the obligations.”

This story demonstrates that even a tiny newspaper can follow the complicated spaghetti of a mess going on in their neighborhood. (Are you watching DNT?) And that whenever a School Board rushes off headlong in defiance of their voters all hell breaks loose. In the St. Louis County School’s case they got a positive vote on their building plan – barely. However, Half of their district voted 75/25 for it and the other half voted 25/75 against it. In such a case you shouldn’t expect surrender by the aggrieved minority – you should expect civil war.

The question for Duluth is a little different. If there is $32 million in unspent bond funds available why isn’t the Superintendent planning on submitting a referendum instead of merely getting his Board’s 4/3 OK on possible new spending? We know he hates the voters. We know he stuck an eastern stadium in his Red Plan after all his public meetings. We know that because he got all the spending OK’ed without voter approval he apparently can do any darned thing he wants with this money. We know that the Governor is running for President of the United States and doesn’t need any little embarrassing local imbroglios to kick up mud on his pant cuffs. We know that his appointed bureaucrats will keep their heads under the covers.

My prediction based on three years of observing the Red Plan is that the voters will once again discover that they are chopped liver.

The St. Louis County schools prove that even a majority vote can’t guarantee smooth sailing. Duluth proves that skirting the voters won’t either. In both cases reliance on Johnson Controls expertise proved a critical weakness. Profits First!