Contractor's licenses??

[suijuris]

I expect your hard work to pay off - my best wishes to you and your fellow campaigners!

[RICKY]

GOOD LUCK RORY.....



I'M GOING TO RAISE A MUG OF GROG TO YOUR GOOD WORKS..



RICKY

[Jerseee]

I can't wait for this.

[Rory]

Here is a copy of our flyer (or it is close, we made a few changes right before they went to print).



THE COMMITTEE FOR COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

D*****/W***** stickers are attached for your convenience to use on the ballot or you can simply write in their names.

DEAR CONCERNED CITIZEN,



These are exciting times in ***** ****. We would like to thank all those that filled out our citizen's survey that The Committee for Community Involvement (CCI) circulated in April.

We also would like to thank all of you who signed the 3 petitions to get the special questions on June 8th ballot. The following results are to the questions from the survey that deal with this election and the 3 special questions that will be on the ballot..



99% of respondents believe they should have the right to hire anyone they choose to work on their property.



96% of respondents do not believe that they should have to get a permit from the city to work on their own property.



97% of respondents do not believe that the City Commission had the best interest of the citizens of ****** **** when they unanimously voted in the new codes, fees and permit requirements.



99% of the respondents do not believe that the new permits, licenses, fees and regulations would make ****** **** a better place to live.



91% of the respondents favor a repeal of the new building permits, licenses and fees and rely on the State building codes.



96% of the respondents believe that the city should have done their own survey before enacting the new permit, licenses, fees and regulations.



CCI also asked the citizens who they would like to see run for City Commission in the June 8th city election. B** D**** and J** W****** were the top two names that were suggested.



(CCI) is hopeful that you will join us to make ****** **** the best it can be for our families to enjoy and a community of which we can be proud. We ask that you join us in our efforts to put some common sense and communication back into city government. We understand that they have a very difficult job and we want to help them and make their job easier.



Committee for Community Involvement urges you to vote YES on the 3 Special City Initiated Questions dealing with licenses, permits and fees. A Yes vote protects your rights as a home- owner. A No vote means you need pay the city and get permission from the city to maintain your home. We also offer you a real choice, WRITE IN B** D***** AND J** W****** for City Commission.



For more information or to be put on CCI mailing list, e-mail us at ************cci@yahoo.com

You also can mail us at CCI - Box 403- ***** ****, **- *****



(Following is the other side of the flyer with bold print and BIG letters)

WRITE IN







JON W****** & BOB D******

CITY COMMISSION





VOTE YES



ON SPECIAL QUESTIONS 1-2-3

(A Yes vote protects your rights as a homeowner)

(A No vote means you need city permission to maintain your home)



JUNE 8TH CITY ELECTION



STAND UP AND BE HEARD!



CCI-Box 403-****** **** ** ***** e-mail *************cci@yahoo.com



///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Our bumper stickers came in today "STAND UP AND BE HEARD" OR "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP" with CCI and our address and e-mail address on the bottom. For the new comers here, the mayor of our fine city told a citizen at our town meeting back in March to "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU" when he stood up to ask a question in an open forum.



Tuesday is getting closer......tick-tick-tick

[Rory]

OK here we go. Tomorrow is the day! Saturday and today we hit almost every house and Apt in town with our flyers, scratch pads and peel off names for the ballot, probably 95% or better. We have had some great feed back, here's one that we received by e-mail



Hello:

My husband and I would love to be put on your mailing list. I will enclose my home address for you as well.

We want to extend our sincerest thank you to everyone at CCI. Because of your raising awareness here in **, we will stand up and be heard!!! We will be voting for John and Bob. We are curious how this committee began...do you have a website?----We were wondering who the commissioners are right now???

Thank you again for your information in my door, thank you for your time to make a difference in our community, and thank you for any future information. We do want to be involved with our community politics and are ashamed to say we have not been in the past [state and federal, yes, but city, no]. Thank you for waking us up to these issues.

God bless,

Rod and Vicki *******



Today I really felt good about our chances but tonight we had our own meet the candidates and only 25 people showed up. Maybe most people have made up their minds and decided to spend a beautiful night at home in their yards before the mosquitoes hit.



We also got hit one more time in the paper in the letter to the editor section urging a vote against us.



I will try and let you all know tomorrow night.....probably late. Write in campaigns take a little longer to count.



Rory

[Jerseee]

This is getting exciting.

[Rory]

The Committee for Community Involvement (CCI) has won in Valley City. The citizens of Valley City stood up and were heard, the three initiated measures passed overwhelmingly tonight.



# 1 Elimination of City Contractor's licenses - Yes 65%



# 2 Elimination of fees for permits 71% Yes



#3 Building permits required only for new construction, adding livable living space and altering the structural integrity of the building. No permits needed for anything else. 76% Yes



Also CCI ran two write in candidates, Jon Wagar and Bob Drake. Jon Wagar came in first with 974 write in votes and Bob Drake came in third with 635 votes, missing being elected by only 65 votes, but beating the incumbent commissioner Bob Werkoven by 127 votes. Mary Lee Nielson, who was on the ballot, came in second. Jon Wagar and Mary Lee are the two new commissioners for Valley City. CCI may have had a clean sweep if it hadn't been for a late, third write in candidate that received 135 votes.



Bob Drake was the man that wrote and filed the three initiated measures that passed tonight, so even though he did not win a seat on the commission he won tonight.



The Committee for Community Involvement



I was asked via e-mail what the name of our city of 7000 is. Well it's out now.....Valley City, North Dakota

We are located 60 miles west of Fargo, ND, so get out your maps and look us up.

[suijuris]

Rory, congrats! Your city is a better place, and you have demonstrated the power of the ballot! If people in every city would have behaved as the citizens in Valley City did over the past few months, we would be waking up to an entirely changed country, almost overnight!



In any event, you have your city, and my hat is off to you and your fellow citizens.



Now, with your permission, I will move this post the success stories forum... as that is where it now belongs.

[Jerseee]

The air feels a lot crisper and smells a tad bit sweet. I have a warm fuzzy all over. Can you smell that? It smells like....like..... Victory.



Congrats Rory.

[juststartingout]

I already told this to Rory in PM, but I just have to share this here:



My hubby is out in Valley City this morning doing an installaton - if the city wouldn't have had this victory, he wouldn't be able to do his work b/c he doesn't have a liscense to contract in that city



Thank you again for your perseverence!