League of Women Voters of Lafayette, LA

3) Maintenance of a long-range strategic plan, a long-term school facilities plan, a long-term capital improvement plan, and a comprehensive maintenance plan for the public schools, developed with community input.

4) Systematic, regular joint planning by Lafayette Parish School System, Lafayette Consolidated Government and the five municipalities with their technical advisory groups to ensure effective communication, including capital school projects, utilizing common data sources.

5) Increasing the amount of open green space and parks in Lafayette Parish and protecting a unique natural landscape of significant beauty.

CONTINUING STUDY, 2008-09

CONTINUE STUDY TO DETERMINE THE BEST PRACTICES FOR USING A COMMUNITY-OWNED FIBER TO THE HOME PROJECT TO MAKE LAFAYETTE AN INCLUSIVE, DIGITALLY ADVANCED COMMUNITY

Need:

Lafayette will soon be the largest community to own a fiber to the home network and will be almost unique in coupling that network with a municipally-owned wireless network.. Public ownership of advanced network architectures is sufficiently rare that there will be a natural inclination to adopt models used by private providers. But the constraints and potentials of public ownership are substantially different from those that guide for-profit organizations. For Lafayette to make best use of its network an in-depth review of current practices of both private and public network providers should be undertaken with an eye toward making solid recommendations for best serving community goals.

Role of the League:

While the electorate overwhelmingly approved the fiber project, the details of project implementation remain uncertain. The successful backers of the plan emphasized the potential for economic development and especially job development that would give today’s children a productive local future. Related to that was a commitment to “bridge the digital divide;’ that is, to make certain that all segments of the community benefited from the new public resource the vote would create. Lafayette’s leaders assured the community that this could be done in a fiscally responsible fashion that would prepare the city for a future as a digital leader. A non-partisan, non-governmental study that could recommend a set of suggested best practices that would help meet the expressed needs of the community would be very useful to Lafayette. The League’s non-partisan nature and reputation for solid, research-based study of community needs makes it an obvious choice for developing a study group to explore the community potentials of the new service and to lay out a path toward meeting the community’s goals that would be credible in the eyes of the still-contending forces.

While the study group process will determine the final shape of the report offered the members it is possible to identify some areas that would benefit from consideration even at this early stage.

Potential Areas of Study:

Workforce training
E-government
College & Advanced Study
Economic Development
K-12 Education
Media Awareness/Digital Production
Strategies for Increasing Participation
Lifelong Education and Access to Knowledge
Development of a Local Information Commons
Roles of Non-profits, Governmental Agencies, and Businesses

NEW STUDY:

NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE STUDY FOR LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF THE UNITED STATES CONSENSUS BY MAY 1, 2009

Delegates to the National Convention in June, 2008 voted to study the advisability of the National Popular Vote Compact. Each local League was asked to address the study materials prepared y the LWVUS National Popular Voter Study Committee to prepare local members to come to a consensus and respond by May 1, 2008. The League of Women Voters of Lafayette will participate in this study. The National Popular Vote Compact reads as follows:

Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by Nationwide Popular Vote

Article I - Membership

Any state of the United States and the District of Columbia may become a member of this agreement by enacting this agreement.

Article II – Right of the People in Member States to Vote for President and Vice President

Each member state shall conduct a statewide popular election for President and Vice President of the United States

Article III – Manner of Appointing Presidential Electors in Member States

Prior to the time set by law for the meeting and voting by the presidential electors, the chief election official of each member state shall determine the number of votes for each presidential slate in each State of the United States and in the District of Columbia in which votes have been cast in a statewide popular election and shall add such votes together to produce a “national popular vote total” for each presidential slate.

The chief election official of each member state shall designate the presidential slate with the largest national popular vote total as the “national popular vote winner.”

The presidential elector certifying official of each member state shall certify the appointment in that official’s own state of the elector slate nominated in that state in association with the national popular vote winner.

At least six days before the day fixed by law for the meeting and voting by the presidential electors, each member state shall make a final determination of the number of popular votes cast in the state for each presidential slate and shall communicate an official statement of such determination within 24 hours to the chief election official of each other member state.

The chief election official of each member state shall treat as conclusive an official statement containing the number of popular votes in a state for each presidential slate made by the day established by federal law for making a state’s final determination conclusive as to the counting of electoral votes by Congress.

In event of a tie for the national popular vote winner, the presidential elector certifying official of each member state shall certify the appointment of the elector slate nominated in association with the presidential slate receiving the largest number of popular votes within that official’s own state. If, for any reason, the number of presidential electors nominated in a member state in association with the national popular vote winner is less than or greater than that state’s number of electoral votes, the presidential candidate on the presidential slate that has been designated as the national popular vote winner shall have the power to nominate the presidential electors for that state and that state’s presidential elector certifying official shall certify the appointment of such nominees. The chief election official of each member state shall immediately release to the public all vote counts or statements of votes as they are determined or obtained.

This article shall govern the appointment of presidential electors in each member state in any year in which this agreement is, on July 20, in effect in states cumulatively possessing a majority of the electoral votes.

Article IV – Other Provisions

This agreement shall take effect when states cumulatively possessing a majority of the electoral votes have enacted this agreement in substantially the same form and the enactments by such states have taken effect in each state.

Any member state may withdraw from this agreement, except that a withdrawal occurring six months or less before the end of a President’s term shall not become effective until a President or Vice President shall have been qualified to serve the next term.

The chief executive of each member state shall promptly notify the chief executive of all other states of when this agreement has been enacted and has taken effect in that official’s state, when the state has withdrawn from this agreement, and when this agreement takes effect generally.

This agreement shall terminate if the electoral college is abolished.

If any provision of this agreement is held invalid, the remaining provisions shall not be affected.

Article V – Definitions

For purposes of this agreement, “chief executive” shall mean the Governor of a State of the United States or the Mayor of the District of Columbia; “elector slate” shall mean a slate of candidates who have been nominated in a state for the position of presidential elector in association with a presidential slate; “chief election official” shall mean the state official or body that is authorized to certify the total number of popular votes for each presidential slate; “presidential elector” shall mean an elector for President and Vice President of the United States; “presidential elector certifying official” shall mean the state official or body that is authorized to certify the appointment of the state’s presidential electors; “presidential slate” shall mean a slate of two persons, the first of whom has been nominated as a candidate for President of the United States and the second of whom has been nominated as a candidate for Vice President of the United States, or any legal successors to such persons, regardless of whether both names appear on the ballot presented to the voter in a particular state; “state” shall mean a State of the united States and the District of Columbia; and  “statewide popular election” shall mean a general election in which votes are cast for presidential slates by individual voters and counted on a statewide basis.