Lane deviation?

Ninth District Alderman Terry McCarthy led the opposition to the referendum proposal. He said such a nationally focused issue didn’t fall under the council’s jurisdiction.

“It has been the practice of this council, in the time that I’ve been on it, to limit ourselves to dealing with items that have some effect in our jurisdiction,” he said.

McCarthy spoke multiple times against the referendum, suggesting that a petition was possibly a better way to gauge Racine’s feeling on the potential amendment. Supporting McCarthy, 15th District Alderman Melissa Lemke also didn’t think the referendum was the council’s responsibility.

“I fully, fully support what you folks are trying to do,” Lemke said. “To me, it seems a little not in our lane. I think I’d rather stay in our lane.”

However, 14th District Alderman Jason Meekma said he views the council as being part of “something bigger.”

“We are a part of something bigger than ourselves,” he said. “We are a city in a county. We are a county in a state.”

Ultimately, McCarthy, Lemke, 13th District Alderman James Morgenroth and 12th District Alderman Henry Perez voted against the referendum proposal.

According to City Attorney Scott Letteney, the referendum proposal will need to be approved at the Jan. 17 meeting in order to appear on April’s ballot, since there is a 70-day pre-election deadline for ballot items.

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