Why I Voted No

Stephanie Johnson

6/21/20251 min read

At both the Committee meeting on June 2 and the regular meeting on June 16, I was the lone “no” vote on this ordinance. Why? Let me explain.

1) I have no problem with celebrating the 250th anniversary of the country. It is a wonderful thing to be celebrated. But I believe the state alone should promote the 250th birthday of the country. With the problems in Saline County (7 non-working tornado sirens and no animal control or animal shelter), elected officials need to get to work on working for the PEOPLE rather than the Governor.

2) You’ll notice that the library is mentioned in this ordinance. If you remember, several of us, myself included, were fighting against questionable materials being available to minors in the Saline County libraries. So I absolutely do not support their involvement in any way for anything related to the birthday of the country.

3) The sponsor of this ordinance is the entire Quorum Court. Nobody asked if I wanted to be a sponsor on this ordinance. I think it would be safe to say that none of us were asked first if we’d like to be a sponsor on this ordinance. The only one who speaks for me is me. Nobody needs to say I’ll support something when they have no idea if I will or not.

Rather than be worried about pomp and circumstance and running ordinances that do nothing to better the lives of citizens in the county, the elected members of the Quorum need to stay focused on representing those who voted for them and trying to improve the lives of the citizens of this county.