COUNCIL MEETING #2 : VEXING

Last night’s Council meeting started 18 minutes late, although there finally was a visible quorum present by 8:10pm. Despite a full courtroom of attendees, and although Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Brown, who was one of two on time was present; instead of selecting an acting Chair for the meeting decided to wait for Council President Rivers. Once again little consideration is given by an elected body to the Public.

Although it is accepted as legal for a member of a civic organization to be considered as present by speaker phone; I continue to decry its use as being impractical in the open concept for meetings. There is no way for the public to interpret the speaker’s “body actions” or to be able to ‘question” that person during public comment time. 

Furthermore Councilor William’s comments were almost impossible to hear or understand. During one protracted discussion by Council members she also seemed out of contact with the flow off conversation. Also once again I in the audience could not hear or understand what she was saying. Council President Rivers continues to impose her own rules contrary to the written Council rules when it comes to public speakers and also Council members.

The public commentary before the discussions on Resolutions and Ordinances is supposed to be limited to 30 minutes with 3 minutes allocated to an individual speaker. These are rules that are impossible to adhere to, yet there is the provision by majority vote to extend that time. Although this was done for individual speakers it has never been applied to the total time for that section of the agenda.

There should be a reasonable revision of the allotted time with a mandatory cut off unless extended by Council majority vote. Also the individual max time should b 5 minutes, the 3 minute limit is not realistic since it is impossible for any but a trained debater or public speaker to make a point in that time limit. Again he limit should be enforced with a speaker given notice at the 4 minute mark.

Since there were several dozen speaking against the resolution which would transfer the City sponsored Bilingual Day Care Center to an outside agency; in this case “Hopes Community Action Partnerships”; the actual resolution was only to enter into a TRANSITIONAL PERIOD MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT.**.

There is no mention that “Hopes” has been designated as the new agency to run the program.

However, Rivers did allow certain individuals to speak more than once during the Public Commentary and also when the Resolution was on the table for Council action. 

To follow a blog on this issue well as one on other contentious actions last night.


The Resolution wording:
**1.The Mayor, his assigns and the City Clerk are hereby authorized to negotiate and execute a Memorandum of Agreement with HOPES Community Action Partnership, Inc. for up to a two (2) year transition period.

2. Services such as gas, electric, water and PMUA in an amount not to exceed $40,000 annually be budgeted to Bilingual Account 01-20-335-002-288.