My heroes this week are John Saunders, Kathy Bolam and Rich Angley, citizens of Venice, Florida. What did they do?
They got petitions signed and went to a public meeting in Venice, Florida, in a attempt to stop their city council from joining ICLEI. Although they failed in their goal, they did get a public airing of the issues involved in the local newspaper, the Venice Gondolier.
The paper admits the foreign policy goals of ICLEI:
Earlier this year the city agreed to pay annual dues in the amount of $600 to the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, which calls itself “ICLEI — Local Governments for Sustainability.” The organization has 576 North American members, including 28 cities and counties in Florida. Sarasota and Miami-Dade counties are members. So are the cities of Venice, Sarasota, Tampa, Naples, Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Gainesville.
According to its Web site, ICLEI takes complex problems like climate change and provides tools to help cities to address those issues, like creating model sustainability policies. It helps organize the United Nations’ international climate change efforts, including the United Nations 15th Climate Change Conference currently under way in Copenhagen.
The council had voted in 2007 to consider joining and paid $600 at that time to do so. The budget for ICLEI and related expenditures had mushroomed to $15,000(!). The mayor tried to be reassuring that local control was not involved.
Angley sounded a bit like the Carroll County Commission when he said this was foreign and unconstitutional intrusion into property rights through the International Property Maintenance Code with potential home inspections, supported by ICLEI but not adopted by the City of Venice:
“The sole purpose of the ICLEI is not to protect the environment as they state. Its purpose is to maneuver itself into and encumber our local governmental structures and strengthen the hold of world government powers on every aspect of our lives. Eventually this will lead to the dissolution of property rights. That’s the goal of ICLEI.
“It is not an anti-environmental petition,” he added. “We are not against your efforts to save energy or to protect our environment. The problem is membership equates to acceptance of U.N. program Agenda 21. What we object to is use of taxpayer funds to support an organization with expressed desires to supersede the authority of the United States of America and its constitution.”
RAH! Saunders and Bolam also spoke at the meeting. They brought a petition with 79 signatures of Venice residents and voters, collected on election day. Saunders spoke on foreign control of property rights and Bolam agreed in response to a council member’s claim that ICLEI gave useful information but stated that the information came as a cost: Liberty.
read more here:: http://www.varight.com/news/more-heroes-for-our-nation-today-today-...
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