March Madness is supposed to be confined to those NCAA basketball brackets we fill out for fun. It's not meant to describe the serious business of filling out ballots to determine our future as a city.
But here we are, perusing a bungled ballot with no assurance that our votes will even be certified due to errors in the way three questions were written — madness, anyone? — and City Hall can't get out of its own way to give the measures a fair shot.
On Friday, the City Council put out a statement acknowledging a trillion-dollar mistake in Measure 2C on the ballot. That was a few days after the city admitted to mangling its attempt to explain the math in 2A and 2B — though it stubbornly refuses to call those confusing explanations what they are: mistakes.
The city couldn't just apologize and set the record straight, even though humility would have gone a long way toward re-establishing what's at stake — progress on roads, better police and fire protection and more resources for parks and recreation.
No, it had to haughtily observe that "without doing a calculation," voters would come away with a false impression that 2A and 2B would collect a fraction of the sales tax that would actually be collected on a $10 purchase.
Without doing a calculation? Isn't that the entire purpose of explaining the math?
"There is a mathematical explanation to the language; however, we erred in believing that would be the only explanation required," the city's statement reads. Translation: We explained it using our "special" math, so our only real mistake was thinking voters would be smart enough to see it the way we do. We underestimated how stupid they actually are.
After articulating this classic "sorry you feel that way" non-apology, the council goes on to make a point that would have been better served with a contrite "don't let our screw-up color your vote."
"The City Council is concerned that the recent discussions about the form of the questions will take away from the true and important public discussion about content or why the questions are being asked," the statement reads. "The City Council trusts that voters will decide these questions based on their own convictions about the importance of City services not the errors in the form of the questions that you may have read about or heard reported. The City needs an engaged citizenry and we welcome your input through the election process. Please carefully consider the substance of each question with your vote."
Not to beat a dead horse, but this appeal to the electorate's conscience plays a lot better with full-blown ownership of the ballot mistakes instead of equivocations about who may or not be responsible for them.
Maybe it's too much to expect of what's essentially a volunteer board. But this is the sort of behavior that galls voters to the point that they're willing to reject measures just to spite a tone-deaf council. Hopefully, the three new members to be elected will see this as an opportunity to establish a new stand-up culture.
Meanwhile, we remind voters not to miss the forest for the trees. Despite the distractions, these are important funding measures. If they don't pass, unmet needs don't go away. But filling them will impair other needs in the community.
Vote as if the city hasn't screwed up a thing.