Her mind was made up

Vancouver City Councilor Jeanne Stewart is nothing if not detail oriented.

I blogged last week about how both she and Councilor Bill Turlay appeared to change their minds in a matter of a week over whether they were in favor of putting a parks levy to the voters this fall.

Stewart, however, (nicely) said this week I had my wires crossed. She said that she would support a 35 cent of $1,000 assessed value levy over a higher 58 cent per $1,000 assessed value levy. And that she was in favor of having the topic go to a public hearing on June 18 (where she and Turlay both voted against it).

But she said she still isn’t into the idea of the parks levy happening before one for fire or police.

Stewart said she still wants to have guidelines of some sort that will give the money freed up in the general fund if a parks levy passes to public safety (which the city manager and other city councilors have said can’t be done, as it restricts the budget policy decisions of future councils).

In my defense, during a June 11 workshop (which I had incorrectly called a first reading in last week’s blog), Stewart never says outright she’s against a vote.

But, she does say: “My concern is that we need to be the leaders in helping citizens identify what the priorities are and what the order of those priorities are. I’m concerned about letting parks go out before we know how we’re going to use that extra money in the general fund.”

Still, she also says: “That being said, the citizens can make that decision.”

So, there we have it.

Stewart and I both went back and watched the workshop on CVTV. She called back and said she thought it was clear she was against it. If she says so, I’ll agree, but I’ll also say I can see how I thought she was in favor of a vote.

The councilor also pointed out that after watching herself on tape and calling her speech “laborious,” she pledges to start speaking faster. As a journalist on deadline, I told her I’d hold her to that.