I still scratch my head a little bit when I still hear people talk about a NFL player kneeling at a game to bring awareness to police brutality.
To be honest with you, I think most of the professional athletes in this country are overpaid brats that bilk public tax dollars for their stadiums of gold and glitz. But no matter who they are, they have a right to their 1st Amendment Rights.
City ordinance allows 5 minutes for public input as long as it isn’t inflammatory or threatening. Following Roberts Rules of Order the mayor or chair of the meeting has the right to cut off the public input if it violates these rules.
I’m not going to give you another lesson in the 1st Amendment, but I do have something to say about public input and the constant complaints from some people in the public and some in the media about how ‘certain’ people shouldn’t be able to speak.
First off, some of the same people, like myself do speak each week, but I think we bring a different topic forward each week, some don’t, oh well.
Some would say we are negative. Baloney. Petitioning your government has to do with improving government. The whole point of the 1st Amendment is allowing the public to tell it’s government how it can do things better. Government officials don’t always agree, but to call it negative is far-fetched. People are uncomfortable with criticism, but if you are an elected official that is part of the job, if you don’t like it, please resign. Government doesn’t have time for thin skinned cry babies.
But most importantly, especially here in Sioux Falls, the public only gets that five minutes once a week at the city council meeting. We are there on our own accord and are not getting paid to be there, unlike our elected officials. The mayor even asked a well known public inputer who was ‘putting him up to it’ to speak out. As if they were getting money on the side to criticize the administration, because who would dare just do it on their own?
The mayor on the other hand who absolutely detests public input spends several hours each week, on the clock, in front of a camera giving his opinion on various parts of city business, mostly propaganda, and sadly that propaganda probably costs us taxpayers several thousand dollars each week. I would be willing to bet that over the past 7-1/2 years our mayor has spent well over a $1 million using city media to push his agenda while each of us have 5 minutes that doesn’t cost the city a dime.
A great example of this was the numerous town hall meetings in which the mayor and city staff sold us on an indoor pool and the propaganda didn’t stop after the pool was built, in fact it threw a party celebrating the pool’s attendance over the first year. But did you know over the past 2 months since the 1st year anniversary attendance was way down from last year? Did you also know on January 1st the pool rates will go up significantly? You won’t hear that from talking heads in city hall.
This is why our ‘5 minutes’ each week is important whether you like it or not or if the mayor hates it, it’s important to a democracy.
It’s time to consider renouncing city citizenship. It will be to late once Huether builds a wall. Not a Mexico wall, a Berlin Wall.
I would like to see more people showing up for public input every week for no other reason than I believe it would eventually cause Huether to have a very public, angry, recorded, breakdown.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Speech_(painting)
MK is right. They invite Public Input. Why are we limiting this to just a few speakers. Lets fill the hall and let them hear our voices! If this is done before 10, we’ve not done our duty!
City council meetings are the one place taking a knee can be accepted. Without public input, the city is Cleptocracy. Taking a knee would show defiance and Huether’s lack of respect for the US Constitution.