At the May 28 meeting, Mayor Tait asked staff to come back with resolutions putting the recommendations of the Anaheim Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) to a vote of the people. The left-wing coalition pushing for eight single-member council districts have been calling for the same thing.

The draft resolutions on the June 11 City Council agenda do not reflect the recommendations of the CAC. The CAC’s final report called for placing “the question of a potential change in the city election system, particularly the question of district or at-large council member elections to a vote of the citizens of Anaheim.”

Remember that this recommendation was unanimously endorsed by the Citizens Advisory Committee members — including the appointees of Mayor Tom Tait and former Councilmember Lorri Galloway.

It is vital to also remember that five of the 10 members of the Citizens Advisory Committee members opposed single-member council districts — and one of the five who initially voted for single-member districts later tried, unsuccessfully, to switch his support to at-large council districts.

In other words, only a minority of the CAC is committed to single-member council districts, while a majority of the CAC wants to continue electing councilmembers at-large?

So why is it that none of the draft ballot questions give Anaheim voters the option — as explicitly called for by the CAC — of choosing to continue electing councilmembers on an at-large basis?

Why are Anaheim voters being denied the opportunity to vote on keeping the at-large system? If the mantra of “let the people decide how they are governed” is truly the mantra of the single-member council district advocates, surely they will not object to giving the people the option to decide they want to continue being

Those who have been advocating for single-member council districts have attempted to arrogate to themselves the moral high-ground of “letting the people vote.” If that truly is their guiding principle, then surely they can have no objection to amending Resolution 1 so it is faithful to the explicit recommendation of the Citizens Advisory Committee?

Opposition to doing so will give lie to all the professions of allowing the people to have their say.