haleyluna,
In our town, you have to approach your local councilor and see of they will take on the responsibility of presenting the request for a code change to the rest of the council. But it sounds like the secretary you talked to advised otherwise? Perhaps you should actually speak to the councilor. It IS his job to talk to his constituents.
At the same time, I would get as much public attention as you can. We thought we'd hold off on that, try to get it passed quietly without stirring up any vocal oppostiion by going public, but in the end it got into the (small local free) press anyway so we pursued the big guys (city newspaper and TV news) which actually made a big difference.
Here's the order of what we did :
1) met with councilor, he said, "this will be easy, we'll just present to the council at the next workshop"
2) presented at workshop, after submitting materials of support (which I would be happy to share).... but it wasn't easy, councilors opposed it, so they did not "move it forward" for the actual vote at the next meeting, but asked for more time to gather more information. Shceduled us to talk again in 2 weeks at another workshop.
3) Did lots of research to address the concerns they had, and sent it to each councilor. Meanwhile, began to drum up local support. Sent emails around to friends and neighbors, asking them to pass them along.. explaining what and why, and asking those folks to email the city council. We made the mistake of requesting they email only thier own local councilors, better to include email links for ALL the council members and the mayor.
4)Set up the web site with an on-line petition, FAQs, links to email council, links to write to newspapers, media stories, etc.
5) The weekend before the next workshop, walked around neighborhoods (especially the affluent ones that have most influence on town gov't!) and talked to folks. Lots of support. Got signatures, passed out flyers with web site URL. Put up flyers around town.
6) Asked those who were the most interested to come to the workshop, even though they could not speak... just to show support. Provided placards to hold up. Invited TV news. TV news did a story in our yard, as did 2 free local papers and the big city paper.
7) 2nd workshop. 40 or so supporters came, great to show support (but felt bad they had to sit through BORING long workshop!!) & TV news. Council feeling the heat of public support, still unconvinced but enough to "move it forward" to the next meeting/vote.
8) Wrote letters to editors of all papers, urged supporters to do so.
9) Offered to help city officials with ordiance draft. Did hours and hours research for other cities ordinances to show how regulations worded (based on council's directives from the workshop). Was involved in ordinance draft.
10) Planning Board meeting a couple of days ago to approve their small part. Very tense, we presented. Other citizens opposed, passed VERY narrowly.
11) First of two City Council Meetings/Public Hearings/Votes needed to make any amendment change is schduled for Au 6. I know opposers will be there so we need to rally our supporters. Plan email call to support, walk the pavement, etc. Updated the reporters so they can cover it. NERVOUS!!!!!!!!
See how much work it is?? Be ready to devote a few months, and several hours a day, to this! Good luck!!!!
Stacey & Olivia
