As the Madison City Council considers supporting a congressional study of slavery reparations next week, some people are questioning whether the council spends too much time debating national issues.
Four candidates for City Council, one of whom has since dropped out of the race, signed a petition to create a more efficient council by focusing on issues facing the city. They cited a November resolution against war in Iraq as an example of the council's \glaring inefficiencies.""
Matt Berry, a District 8 council candidate and one of the signers of the petition, said, ""It's a complete and utter waste of time to debate national policy. City Council doesn't have any influence or jurisdiction or power over those national issues. The City Council is completely helpless and impotent to perform any action on the national level.""
However, Stan Woodard, a WORT talk show host who collected thousands of signatures of support for the reparations resolution, said the resolution, along with similar ones in cities like Detroit and Chicago, will send an important message to Congress.
""I don't think this one passage by Madison will do anything at all. But there's a cumulative effect,"" he said. ""I look at Madison as being part of a national groundswell of people of justice.""
Ald. Todd Jarrell, District 8, who sponsored the anti-war resolution, said resolutions are one way that citizens can make their views known to federal officials.
""If people come to their city government with something they believe in and have it passed as a city, as a community, I think that really helps people make a big statement,"" he said.
Berry said his problem is not with the national resolutions, but with the time they take up in council meetings that could be used for city business.
""I have no problem if they wish to use their own personal time to get together and discuss what the city's position should be on a national issue,"" Berry said. ""My issue is when we take topics that the city council either doesn't have jurisdiction over or can't realistically perform and use City Council time and meetings to debate those issues.""
However, Woodard and Jarrell said national issues affect Madison as well, and little efficiency was lost by debating them.
""This city is not an island in this state,"" Woodard said. ""We have national ties. So I don't see at all that somehow this is overstepping the jurisdiction of the City Council. They've done it before.\
