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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us November 5, 2005 Council votes to keep festival from voting If the city council has concerns about the actions of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, it would best be expressed by the mayor or perhaps the city administrator discussing it with OSF’s board or director. Little was accomplished by the Ashland City Council approving a resolution Tuesday night asking the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to abandon a vote among its more than 19,000 members. At issue with the vote is whether members wish to give up their voting privileges in order to protect their privacy. But let’s be clear. The council is not just urging people to vote down the measure, but urging the festival not to ask its members what they would like to do. Trying to tell the festival how they should operate is folly, as is issuing a resolution to that end. The city has no oversight over the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. What is wrong with a membership voting on issues that pertain only to it? If the members don’t want to compromise their privacy by giving up the vote, they can vote that way. If they do want to maintain the vote, they can vote that way. In some circles that’s called democracy. Yet, it is almost as if the council is saying a majority of the members of the festival can’t figure out what is best for the themselves and the future of the festival. A council of seven apparently needs to think for all 19,000-plus members. The merit of the festival’s appeal to its membership to relinquish its voting rights is not the issue. OSF members will vote and rightly decide this for themselves. What is problematic is city council jumping into the fray. Whether the city intended it as such, the resolution was a stab in the back to the festival, purposefully trying to undermine the festival board and the directors. With turmoil at the top of its departments, unresolved conflict on its police force and the stunning lack of a cohesive economic or downtown plan, it would seem the city council would be far better served getting its own house in order before making flimsy public statements for what appears to be little more than political grandstanding. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams