How it’s done here

By Doug Page | Friday, January 4, 2008, 02:23 PM

Greg Dixon’s three-hour stroll last night through the inner workings of city government should have been entitled, This Is How We Do It in Troy.

Entering his 28th year as law director, Dixon likely has seen it all.

In addition to explaining the law and their role in the city, Dixon shared with the City Council his personal observations.

No. 1 was if you vote “No” on an issue, explain yourself to your colleagues and the citizens.

“It seems to me a ‘No’ vote is important and should be discussed,” he told the council members during an orientation session.

Likewise, an abstention needs explanation. Dixon noted that to abstain is considered a vote to approve the matter at hand.

But Dixon spent the majority of his time on his perception of the role of a council member in a republic.

Neither Troy nor Miami County nor Ohio nor the United States of America is a democracy. It is, and always has been, a republic. Dixon pulled out his pocket edition of the U.S. Constitution as proof, reciting Article IV, Section 4, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.”

That means the people elect their representatives, and their representatives make the laws. In a democracy, the people make the laws under majority rule. Of course, a lynch mob may consider its actions as reasonable under the theory of majority rule.

Dixon, however, took a slightly different tack. How do you know what the majority thinks? he asked.

He noted in the November election that voters sent a strong and clear message on Honey Creek, again rejecting the rezoning by another landslide margin. Yet in the same election, one of the principal opponents of Honey Creek finished last in a five-man race for three at-large council seats. Two incumbents, both of whom supported the development, were re-elected.

What is the majority saying? he asked.

Then he brought up the five eighth-grade students, who in 2004 went to the council asking that smoking be banned in city restaurants. After many meetings, the council chose to do nothing believing, as one committee pointed out, the majority wanted freedom of choice not a ban.

A year later, voters passed a statewide ban on smoking. It passed, Dixon noted, in every one of Troy’s wards.

What was, Dixon asked, the majority saying?

“You may not know what is out there,” he said. He further questioned those members who say they are elected to do the will of the people.

“What makes you the candidate of choice if your decisions are not your own?” he asked. “You will have to decide whether you will be a leader or the voice of your constituency.”

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