First of two parts
Re “Zeidman Would Have Preferred Putting EE on the Ballot”
[img]1912|right|Scott Zeidman||no_popup[/img]After digesting School Board member Karlo Silbiger’s nearly 1900-word speech rejecting a bond measure campaign that seemingly had momentum, former Board President Scott Zeidman drew several provocative conclusions.
“I appreciate Karlo’s hard work and conscientiousness,” Mr. Zeidman said. “I appreciate that he is concerned about Measure EE,” the parcel tax that Mr. Zeidman, as a Board member, helped drive to victory four years ago.
“The most common criticism of him over the years is that nothing gets done. Things get tabled. They get continued. They get stuck in committee. It takes forever to do anything. Now that is a criticism of every School Board, including mine.
“But here it looks like, a year ago, the Silbiger Board may have missed the boat.
“To start, you have to look at it politically. Any type of school funding vote, you want to put it on when there is a School Board election.
“The people who come out to vote in a School Board election are the type who always vote, and people who are interested in the schools.
“When you look at City Council elections, you get the people who always vote, and people who are interested in the city. More people are interested in the city than in the schools.
“When you have the bigger elections, you have the people who always vote, and people who are interested in the state offices. They have a lot more power and a lot more money behind them, so more people vote.
“The least number of people vote in community college elections,” said Mr. Zeidman, who lost his bid for re-election two years ago.
“So when you are asking the electorate to support any kind of measure related to financial matters or schools, you want to put it on a School Board election.
“That is Politics 101.
“What Madeline (Ehrlich, former Board member) and I did with the parcel tax, Measure EE, was to make it for five years and renew it after four because it takes about a year for everything to go through.
“You would not renew it in June of 2014. You renew it in November of 2013.
“The fifth year arrives, and what do you know? There is no lapse.
“Further, you put it on a School Board election year, not a general election year or a City Council election year (next April).
“That,” Mr. Zeidman said, “maximizes your ability to help the measure pass.”
(To be continued)
