Mayor Morrissey addressed the Rockford City Council on 27th December, 2005:
When I was elected on April 5, I believe the voters adopted a call to action, urgency, and positive change for the community. We have worked together as a Council since that time to move the agenda of the community forward. This community has embraced an agenda where the City takes a larger role in improving our schools by doing such things as fighting truancy. The community has supported our efforts to raise community standards by enforcing a “broken windows” approach to policing and community development through such actions as our littering ordinance, and our “weed and seed” efforts in high crime and high poverty areas. And the community supports our efforts to get our fair share of road dollars from Federal and State governments and build a passenger rail link to Chicago. I know this Council will continue to work on these efforts, but I also know that success can be achieved much faster if this community also supports bringing Home Rule back to Rockford, and our success will be jeopardized without those tools. I believe it is my responsibility as Mayor to highlight opportunities and risks to this Council and this community, and address any misconceptions, as they relate to the Home Rule issue.
New authority would be given to Rockford City Council
As Professor James Banovetz from NIU pointed out last week, with Home Rule the Mayor of this City gets no new powers. New authority would, however, be given to this Council. And we of this Council are not comprised of a “king and a court”; rather, we are the friends and neighbors of fellow Rockfordians, and we have been duly elected as part of our American Representative Democracy. We are not appointed for life, but are elected for a set term and we serve at the pleasure of the voters. And we have a legislative process at this Council which allows individuals and interest groups throughout the community to help shape the policies that govern us. In that way, we continue today to do the sacred work of Democracy that President Abraham Lincoln spoke of at the battlefield of Gettysburg. We continue to consecrate the memories of those who have died in service to our Country by being a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
To suggest that putting the question of Home Rule authority on a ballot and giving that decision to our people would do anything other than continue our Country's traditions of Representative Democracy is, in my opinion, false and misleading. While such talk may capture headlines, it does not ring true to the spirit of representative government upon which this Country was founded. We are right now entrusted as a Council with certain powers, one of which is the power to put issues of general community concern on the ballot. The issue of Home Rule is one of those issues.
Why do we need Home Rule?
I believe it is of general concern to this community that without Home Rule, we do not have the power to pass an ordinance directly on truancy to further aid our schools’ efforts to battle this critical problem. I believe the citizens may also be concerned that without Home Rule this Council is limited in our ability to adopt creative economic development strategies designed to increase home ownership and neighborhood development in many of our high crime and high poverty areas. And I believe our citizens would also be concerned to know that without Home Rule we cannot as a City acquire or enter into right-of-way agreements to develop our own passenger rail system connecting to the Chicago market. Instead, we must rely on State leaders who may have conflicting agendas; or we must wait for the METRA system to come to us, which may not occur in our lifetimes. I think our citizens want to control as much of their own destiny as possible and I think these types of questions are of general concern to this community. That is why I support putting this question on the March ballot.
The community has high expectations for rapid improvement in Rockford. I think those expectations are fair, but those expectations must be tempered by the reality of the tools through which this Council acts. Putting the issue on the March ballot will allow us to further communicate with our community on how we would use the tools of Home Rule to achieve the aggressive agenda with which we have been entrusted. If this Council agrees that these are important questions for the community, then we have the opportunity to put this issue on the ballot and use the next months for the community to become educated and informed on the issue and allow a healthy debate to continue. Delaying the issue to November would not make the issue any easier. As I have said before, it has been over 22 years since this issue was before the community. The passion of the debate on this issue should not be surprising since it brings with it painful memories from that past. I believe we should tackle the issue directly and not prolong the issue. When it comes to community progress, time is not on our side. The State Legislature does not operate on Rockford's time clock. The Federal government does not operate on Rockford's time clock. Finally, the world economy does not operate on Rockford's time clock.
In today's age, we are on the world's time clock. That puts a burden and challenge on this local legislative body to govern and act for our people in efficient, effective, and creative ways so that Rockford does not get left behind. I believe that Home Rule is a tool that can help with that challenge, and I believe our citizens deserve a chance to vote on that issue. And no matter what your beliefs are on this issue, my hope is that we can be known as a Council and community that tackles tough issues and, no matter what the community decides, we move on together thereafter as a united community. May God bless this Council and our Citizens and may we be blessed with a wonderful New Year.