This article by Gillian Pomplun appeared in the Crawford County Independent, June 27th, 2018.
VIROQUA – The Viroqua City Council met as a committee of the whole on Wednesday, May 30 for a presentation and discussion about community rights. Paul Cienfuegos of ‘Community Rights’ spoke to council members and almost 50 concerned citizens about the work he does and the history of community rights or local control in the United States.
“Federal and state government, government agencies, the courts, and corporations have all worked together over the course of generations to create the legal building blocks of erosion of local control,” Cienfuegos explained. “The same legal process that is open to them is open to local governments, to enact local ordinances, face the legal challenges, and win some and lose some.”
Cienfuegos explained that the only way to reassert the ability of local municipalities is to start at the local level, where government is closest to the citizens that elect them, and to elect representatives with vision who are not afraid to be sued.
“In just the same way that corporations used the constitution, and federal and state laws and administrative rules to challenge local control, winning some and losing some, and gradually creating legal precedents for the cornerstone arguments of their case for corporate personhood, so too must local governments pursue the same course,” Cienfuegos explained. “Local governments have got to find ways to ensure they have the authority to protect the health, safety and welfare of the local people they represent.”
Cienfuegos has come to the four-state Driftless Region at the behest of local governments and citizens 29 times since 2013, always by invitation. MORE…