My town

I have to applaud the Austin City Council for standing up for the city's sovereignty today.

It voted unanimously (when two are fighting one another for the mayor's seat, it says a lot when they take the same position) to fight proposed legislation by State Sen. Wentworth that would force single-member districts upon Austin.

Now I am against single-member districts as I find they create provincialism and are a detriment to getting anything done. But that's not the cause for my admiration.

This is an Austin decision, not a state question. Austin has held elections and declined such districts SIX times. After another census, it's likely Austin will look at it a seventh time. Sen. Wentworth needs to mind his own business.

Now, some of South Austin is in Wentworth's jurisdiction. He claims he received a request for his legislation from some of those constituents. But if you watch the ID next to Wentworth's name, it says San Antonio, not Austin.

(By the way senator, after years and years of simply sucking cheap water out of an aquifer, has San Antonio dealt with its water crisis yet? Wait, isn't that the site of the greatest drought in the nation right now? And it still doesn't have a proper reservoir because voters look at the cost and keep saying "no"? Maybe some state legislation is the answer.)

Every senator gets requests for special interest legislation. One way this is a representative democracy is those folks weed out non-viable requests that have nothing to do with a senator's job. I don't find Sen. Wentworth very representative, nor discerning, here.

We've got financial difficulties out the wahoo, an education system that isn't turning out productive citizens, infrastructure that is underfunded and crumbling and Sen. Wentworth thinks the senate should wander off into meddling in Austin's affairs.

What the city council did was not turn its back on single member districts. It told Wentworth to mind his own business. Just because he spends a few months here every two years doesn't make this his town. It's our town.

And as for those consitituents who made the request. Tell them to vote. And get their neighbors to vote. That's how you create change.