In June of 2024, the Hillsboro Herald discovered that the City Manager and Staff were asking the City Council to approve a vote to refer the possible Fluoridation of Hillsboro’s water to the Voters. Because of that article, a group of Doctors came to the June 18th, 2024 Council meeting and vehemently protested adding fluoride to Hillsboro’s water. They were each given 3 minutes during Public Comment, among them were some powerful representatives. This was the only time Flouride was on the City Council agenda and the only time for any public input or science-based questions to be posed to the Council. But understand, there was never a Q and A process on this Flouride matter, not a public hearing, which should have been done had the City Council wanted any citizen input.
You can watch the City Water Department present the Flouride matter to the Council here on public TV. https://reflect-tvctv.cablecast.tv/CablecastPublicSite/show/28196?seekto=9000&site=5
You can hear those comments here – https://reflect-tvctv.cablecast.tv/CablecastPublicSite/show/28196?seekto=5252&site=5
The Fluoride issue was brought forward to the Council by Assistant City Manager Rahim Harji. The Council was presented with the facts as he and the water department saw them and asked to allow the handful of concerned parties to circumvent the process of getting a Vote on our ballots. Normally any person or group wanting to effect change on a big issue like this would have to get the signatures of 15% of the population to put an initiative petition on the ballot. That would have meant this small group who wanted Fluoride would have had to gather about 10,000 signatures of registered Hillsboro voters. We do not see initiative petitions in all of our elections because they are almost impossible to do. Here is a slide show provided at the City during this process.
So the Council decided to give this small group a massive break and to refer the matter to all of you for an advisory vote on Fluoride being put in your water. Your Vote on this matter will NOT put Fluoride into the water, but it will give the Council direction as to what you think. At that point, the City Council will act on the matter, and as of right now, no councilors in Hillsboro are opposed to Fluoride. We want any who opposed to Fluoride to step forward now and let us know – hillsboroherald@gmail.com.
Original article online at: https://hillsboroherald.com/hillsboro-fluoridation-put-on-ballot-with-city-council-approval-waiving-initiative-process-what-do-you-think/