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The Downside Of ReferendumsBy Chris BellandThe upcoming election has engenderedsome very sad and distastefulfeelings in our communitythat are going to linger long afterOctober 1st. I don’t believe, in myheart of hearts, it was necessary.Admittedly, I was not at the meetingwhen the City Commissionersdecided to put the channel wideningissue out to referendum. I don’teven know who sponsored it. I wishsomeone had stood up or a Commissionerhad spoken effectivelyagainst it. Maybe somebody did butobviously the Commission wentahead and voted to put the channelwidening study on the ballot.In my view, the City Commissionwas elected to be able to objectivelyanalyze the data and listen to thecontrolled forum available to citizensto present all sides of such anissue and to decide then and there.That is the reason we elect people tooffice. Granted, and I have writtenabout this many times before, takingpublic office is, more often than not,a thankless job that opens you upto a great deal of unfair criticism.Running for office is something Ihave never done and probably neverwill and I am in continual admirationfor those who do. It is certainlynot the pay but, rather, a very strongfelt desire to serve the community. Ihave never spoken in front of, writtenabout or written to our City orCounty Commissioners without alwaysthanking them for their service.I meant it when I have said it beforeand I mean it now. Thank you!With all this being said, however,I would be remiss if I did not expressthe view that we should take a greatlesson from the temptation to puthard decisions on the public ballot.There have been a great many voicesof reason on this subject for, indeed,there are two sides to it.I understand the fear of environmentaldestruction but have satisfiedmyself that the immediate effectswill be minimal and the mitigationefforts will be a net improvement.September 27 - October 3, 2013 • www.conchcolor.comI understand how many people inthe community of Key West do notwant cruise ship passengers. Manyof them do not perceive a need forthem whereas I see cruise ship passengersas an irreplaceable part ofthe economy. Our hotels are alreadyfull so we have nowhere else to go inthe tourist industry to replace cruiseship revenue. At the same time,I can also see how the cruise shipindustry has done a great deal tofoster abbreviated visits to our islandwhich has resulted in return visits.Today, our hotels have one of thehighest occupancy and average dailyrates in the entire country. I can alsosee how expenditures for dockingfees, expenditures by crew and bypassengers put millions of dollarsper year in a very closed economywhich, thereafter, circulate manytimes making this a healthy environmentto keep people employed, notthe least of whom are our serviceworkers, firemen and police. In fact,we have one of the lowest unemploymentrates in the United States.Yes, there are two sides to thisstory and because it has festered forso long in the public and not-sopublicforum, it has formented uglyrecriminations, false informationand acrimony that will linger forquite some time. Again, I believethis could have been avoided hadthe City Commission listened to thepeople and simply voted on it.Please vote on October 1st rememberingwe are not voting to doanything but study the procedureand ramifications of widening ourchannel to keep Key West a viableport. The study will then tell uswhether to go forward and do thework or not. The final work will notbe done or in place for many yearsto come but, if done or not, willeffect this island for generations tocome. I for one do not want to bethe object of a directive that wouldask, “Why didn’t they do somethingwhen they could?”conch color the florida keys 21 photographic chronicle