Why wasn’t I invited to the drag show?
I wonder if Manny’s son, who is openly gay, likes his father comparing him to the KKK? (Public testimony during the SF City Council meeting). Besides Manny’s rant about drag queens, several people came to speak on behalf of the former city clerk. I did not come, because as Steve Hildebrand said earlier today,
“I will skip the 7 pm meeting because I probably would use the public testimony to air my concerns and say things that I later would regret.”
I would agree. I had my own rant about 4 AM this morning in my locked bathroom. I’m pretty sure if I would have repeated that rant tonight, I would be in jail. It did include one line that I will repeat,
“The city council consists of a bunch of fucking chicken shit hypocrites.”
Theresa Stehly used a biblical verse to drive her point home about Debra Owen;
Luke 8:16-17
“No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.”
Theresa went on to talk about the darkness that exists in our city government now. How true it is.
The Argue Endorser and Stormland TV have respective stories today.
I was at the city council meeting as I am most weeks. Theresa Stehly’s impassioned statement was quite magnificent I must may. Cheryl Rath’s calm, eloquent statement was great as well. Cheryl made a statement that pretty much sums it up – quoting her – “I find it ironic it is that someone that advocated so doggedly for open government would not even be allowed to speak at her own termination hearing”. Heck even Tim Stanga’s statement was pretty great, and I have found myself fighting the urge to laugh at some of his public statements. I’ve always respected him at least for getting involved which is more than others do, but at times some of his statements have been a little funny with all respect. I wonder if the council and mayor haven’t stirred up a bit of a hornet’s nest here. I must say personally, the secrecy and from what I can tell probably a political hatchet job (which I can only assume because the council is choosing not to tell me when they are free to) inspires me to do the following:
1. I’m even more enthusiastic to re-elect my councilman, Greg Jamison, who I’ve liked anyway and in general usually agree with. He voted against this and put out a pretty forceful statement opposing the firing and what happened.
2. There is no way I’ll vote for anyone in a at-large seat (Entenman) unless we get some explanation.
3. If someone decides to run against any of the others that come up for re-election, I’ll probably make a donation to their campaign.
The council is free to fire their clerk/chief of staff. However, they also have a boss – the citizens – who are free to terminate them for any reason including no reason. I personally can’t support council people who don’t have the guts to defend their decisions, instead hiding behind the its confidential excuse and those who seem to lack judgement in firing someone who by all accounts was a great advocate of the people and open government.
I was reading about the open government/hearing law in South Dakota and one thing I found – SDCL 1-25-2 allows a government body to close a meeting for certain reasons, it does not REQUIRE them to close the meeting. They chose to hide this from public view. It’s important everyone remembers that. I hope we keep pushing for answers. I find it hard to elect anyone who hides the facts from me and isn’t willing to defend their decision to me, since they work for me.
I still am poking around trying to figure out what happened here, but so far the best I can come up with is maybe its related to the event center and the election perhaps, but that is mostly conjecture. The totality of the circumstances leads me to think it wasn’t for ’cause’ as they would say, but was some sort of witch hunt/hatchet job, but I could be wrong. Of course I don’t know – because my council isn’t telling me.
Sorry, I was typing to fast, so to fix a word switch I had and a misquote:
I was at the city council meeting as I am most weeks. Theresa Stehly’s impassioned statement was quite magnificent I must SAY. Cheryl Rath’s calm, eloquent statement was great as well. Cheryl made a statement that pretty much sums it up – quoting her – “I find it ironic that someone that advocated so doggedly for open government would not even be allowed to speak at her own termination hearingâ€.
Greg – Tim is pretty funny, I laugh at him all the time. I like his ending, “We have all kinds of money to spend!”
Like I have said before, Debra probably stepped on the toes of leadership and they did not like it.
I also was wondering where Mutt and Jeff were tonite? (Entenman and Rolfing) I see they made their best effort to avoid the firing squad.
I wondered the same thing. Were they legitimately absent or did they just not want to face the music. I don’t know if Theresa noticed, but I definitely saw the mayor smirk/laugh during her statement. I saw the same a few other times. Even if I find someone’s statement silly, I sit their with my poker face. I just think its disrespectful to laugh/smirk. In the case of Theresa’s statement, it was heartfelt and compelling and I didn’t think it was appropriate to make light of.
The Big ‘T’ is a dear friend of mine, we talk almost every day and she knows how I feel about religion, but I have told her that the New Testament has a gob of positive messages in it. It think if was fantastic that she quoted the bible, how true the statement was.
As for the smirks and faces, who cares.
I see Stormland TV has some good quotes:
http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=121043
It was during that quote when the smirk/face was. No big deal, but I’m just a fan of decorum and respect, that’s all so I notice those things. In the case of Theresa Stehly, since you’ve had her on Rant a Bit and spoken in tandem at council meetings on things like water rate increases, I figured you knew her pretty well. With her and certain other citizen advocates, I don’t always agree with her necessarily, but I do highly respect her because of her passionate advocacy of groups/people who probably don’t have a voice otherwise. In that regard I’m a huge fan, and she’s always entertaining to watch 🙂 If I see you at a meeting some time, I’ll try to say hello. In full disclosure, I’ve talked to the Mayor several times and I’ve found him personally a nice guy to talk to and I’ve enjoyed my conversations with him. He comes from the credit card industry, and I’m about as anti-debt as they get so we definitely would have to respectfully disagree on that. While he and Turbak in good faith think its a great time to go all in bonding the event center, I hate debt so its a deal breaker for me. In another full disclosure, in general I can tell you and I are polar opposites as a general rule politically speaking, I’m about as conservative as they come, as a general rule, but I do sometimes agree with you on the local issues, and I greatly appreciate the information you add to the local public discourse, since the local media doesn’t give me much to work with usually – besides telling me the weather forecast 3 times in one half hour newscast.
Greg – I know, most of my friends don’t agree with me on a host of topics, that is what makes us friends. We love to debate.
I guess decorum only matters if you’re wearing a hat.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Touche! I almost forgot about that, and I was there for Rolfing’s hat decorum dressing down of Scott. I have to say, I didn’t really mind the hat, it was pretty nice 🙂 I also haven’t checked the rule book on hats in Carnegie Hall either…if that exists!
I pride my hats and shoes. I don’t make those decisions lightly.
Hipsters love derbies. That is all.
The proper name is ‘Skully Cap’ or ‘Skull Cap’
The old men and Hip Hoppers love them to, especially Kangols.
If you want a really nice wool one, check out Mrs. Murphy’s dowtown. Dick has some nice ones. I will warn you, I won’t wear a wool skully, they are hotter then Hell.
I wish the media would give this sort of thing more attention. Ive often wondered if theyre not bought like the mayor and certain councilors.
I just watched Kelo running over to the Mayor’s office – again. A family member of mine who I find quite wise said to me the other day, “you know the Mayor is in trouble when he spends this much time defending himself.” No kidding. What will it be tonight? People were hard on him last night so I suppose he had to sleep on the couch again. I am so glad the the Mayor’s problems are so much greater than the guy that is riding the bus today trying to find a job (just an example).
“People were hard on him last night so I suppose he had to sleep on the couch again.”
LOL!