Dear Editor: Proposition 2 is a severe limitation of your rights – and completely unneeded. Sitkans don’t need more government regulations.
To address the elephant in the room: the cruise ship limitation initiative failed overwhelmingly. Sitkans spoke loud and clear on that issue. For the context of this letter, I was not part of SOUL and did not sign their petition.
Much has already been said about Prop 2 being unconstitutional and how economic studies are costly and cumbersome. I’ll add two points.
First: the sponsors of Prop 2 did not commission such a study. If the sponsors skipped their own remedy, how realistic is it to expect citizen groups to hire one out – especially volunteers with limited funds?
Second: long-time Sitkans will remember that I sponsored an initiative 20 years ago requiring a public vote before building a cruise ship dock on City property at Sawmill Cove (now GPIP). Our measure passed by an overwhelming majority. It did not limit cruise ships—it simply required that the terms of a sale or lease be acceptable to voters.
That initiative would have been unnecessary if the Assembly had simply listened to Sitkans. But a majority on the Assembly at the time feared putting the issue in front of voters.
As the sponsor of a past initiative and chair of an initiative group, I can say raising funds is already a burden. How can we vote for economic studies without knowing the true costs and complexities of such studies?
Looking back, most citizen initiatives in Sitka have passed by large margins. But when the Assembly is out of step with voters on a single issue, we need a system of checks and balances. I deeply appreciate the service of Assembly members – but I do not trust 4 of 7 to always do right.
We need to trust Sitka voters—not throw the baby out with the bath water.
Zach LaPerriere, Sitka
