News update from one of our active Community Rights groups in northern Wisconsin, from one of its core members, Curt Hubatch (who also maintains our website’s NewsFeed):
The Washburn County Community Rights Alliance (WCCRA) introduced our Climate Bill of Rights to the Chicog Town Board in Northwestern Wisconsin in December. There was an hour of respectful conversation about the bill, our organization, and Community Rights in general.
In the audience was the former Corporate Counsel of our county. The Town Chairman invited him for legal clarity about the issue of passing law at the local level. There was no vote taken on the bill.
We left the meeting on two positive notes about our time on the agenda. At the beginning, the Chairman expressed he never expected to be sitting in the chair he was sitting in. He entered the political arena lobbying for local support to oppose a project to turn an abandoned gravel pit into a landfill. Then declaring he was as much an environmentalist as anyone else. And in wrapping up the discussion he said something one always likes to hear from a public servant, “I’m interested, let’s keep this conversation going.”
A few weeks later the attorney present gave his summary of what was proposed. The first point made in the summary was predictable:
“Local governing bodies do not have the authority to make law in Wisconsin, only to administer state law.”
We at The WCCRA are in talks as to what our next move will be concerning our Community Bill of Rights in the Town of Chicog.
(This update from Curt Hubatch was taken from the most recent edition of our newsletter. We invite you to take a look at the rest of our current newlsetter HERE.)