Open Government Austin

Wynn misrepresents timeframe

Mayor Will Wynn, speaking to In Fact Daily, tried to blame the City's illegal wording of the ballot language for the two amendments on short notice:

"It is a big challenge to take an ordinance [ed. note, this is actually an amendment] that one hadn't seen before. We had to (analyze it) in a few days. How do you condense four or five pages into four or five sentences? We want to get it right."

"A few days"? The amendments became public documents before December 1st 2005 (over 3 and 1/2 months ago) when petition signatures started. The City's own cost estimate is dated for January 27, 2006 -- clearly they were reading and analyzing the amendment long before March 9th when they finally set the language. The SOS Amendment was even on the agenda the week before council set the language on March 9th.

Apparently, misrepresenting things to the public is just a habit for the Mayor.

posted by opengovaustin @ Friday, March 31, 2006