http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050828/OPINION01/508280317/1005/OPINION
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Nuclear-free ordinance is unenforceable
The Olympian [Editorial]
28 August 2005

Olympia is now a nuclear-free zone. Big deal! When will the Olympia City
Council stop wasting its time and the public's money on meaningless,
unenforceable ordinances that have little direct impact on the lives of
community residents?

Oh, sure, Councilman TJ Johnson will tell you how he attended a national
conference this year and returned all inspired about a few cities across
the country that have adopted nuclear-free ordinances, how national
movements grow from grassroots efforts and how each of us as a global
citizen must work for peace and justice and on and on and on.

If Johnson wants to influence national policy, he should run for
Congress or the presidency. He was elected to the Olympia City Council
to solve community problems. How does a nuclear-free zone fill the
potholes or house homeless kids or solve downtown parking issues or
alleviate aggressive panhandling or create affordable housing or ... ?

Using a council position to please small constituency groups is a misuse
of his elected authority -- to say nothing of a waste of tax dollars.

City Manager Steve Hall estimates that the staff has spent 70 hours
researching and drafting the nuke-free ordinance at a cost of about $1,750.

What they learned is that Takoma Park, Md., has a similar ordinance and
hasn't enforced it a single time in 20 years.

*Foutch and Mah dissent*

At their meeting Tuesday evening, the council voted 5-2 -- with Mayor
Mark Foutch and Councilman Doug Mah dissenting -- to adopt an ordinance
banning anything related to nuclear weapons from the city limits. The
city also will try not to do business with companies involved in making
nuclear weapons or their components.

The five councilors who voted to pass the ordinance -- Johnson, Laura
Ware, Matthew Green, Curt Pavola and Joe Hyer -- say it reflects the
community's values, makes a statement against nuclear weapons and ties
the city's buying power to that goal.

But Foutch and Mah are right when they say the ordinance opens the city
up to possible lawsuits and will, in effect, be impossible to enforce.

The five-member majority as much as admitted those flaws when, at the
last minute, they approved an amendment to exempt the federal government
and national roadways from the ordinance.

If the federal government wants to ship nuclear warheads up and down
Interstate 5, there's not a darned thing the Olympia City Council can do
about it. That's the reality, and the council members acknowledged that
fact by exempting the feds.

Mah saw through the sham and poked fun at his council colleagues,
saying, "So we're exempting what is likely to be the most likely source
of any transportation, use, development, production, processing and
disposal of nuclear weapons."

*Political sway*

Unfortunately, Johnson has sway with others on the council. It's mostly
the same bloc that voted to pull the welcome mat out from under the USS
Olympia -- again a mean-spirited gesture that insulted and irritated
many South Sound residents.

Shortly after the sub fiasco, Ware ran for the state Legislature and
finished fourth in a five- person race. Her drubbing shows that voters
are paying attention. Now, Pavola and Green are leaving the council, so
there's room for voters to elect council members who will focus on
local, not global, issues.

The person to feel sorry for in this sad scenario is City Manager Hall.
He said the city lacks the staff or the expertise to monitor or enforce
the ordinance. The city will have to rely on companies it does business
with to tell the truth whether they are involved in the nuclear industry
in any way.

The lack of staff, the trust factor and the federal exemption render the
nuclear-free ordinance useless. It's a feel-good ordinance that will be
unenforceable.

Community resident Steve Franklin was right when he said, "Let's stick
to local issues and leave the geopolitical agenda to those with much
more expertise than you."

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