The ‘Painless’ Meeting in Public
We watched as this all played out. The meetings were going to remain closed, the TenHaken administration was digging in their heels. Then councilors Starr and Stehly bring a resolution forward opening the meetings. All of sudden the Task Force was claiming they decided they were going to open them up all on their own according to some secret vote, in a secret meeting and informed the Mayor in a secret email (to this day no one has seen);
An email from the event center group’s co-chairs Dan Statema and Jeff Eckhoff to Mayor Paul TenHaken said that the group had voted at their first meeting on Feb. 27 to allow the public and media to attend the rest of the meetings.
“We see no harm in having interested parties gain the same education we are as we progress through this process,” the email read.
Now fast forward today to the first open meeting. Deputy COS TJ Typeover tells those TV folks this;
“Pat Starr and I brought forth a resolution when we found out these meetings were going to be closed to the public and the resolution requested that they open the meeting and as a result of that the meetings have been opened,†says Stehly.
“After the first meeting they talked in between that meeting and this meeting and decided to open these up to the public,†says Nelson.
So which is it TJ? Did they vote on it? Did they decide later? My guess is both stories are TOTAL BS. You and the Mayor decided to open these meetings up after pressure from Starr and Stehly. Just admit it. Because just lying about it makes you look even more foolish, and certainly NOT transparent.
Sounds like a Mueller investigation to me. Was there collusion? Did the Russians assist against Jolene?
The working public generally does not have 3 hours available on a Wednesday morning to attend a city meeting.
Mayor TenHaken and COS(s) if you are indeed committed to opening up these important taxpayer meetings then OUR $197,000 Director of IT needs to get busy and make these meetings available to all.
Give a boy a man’s job . . . . .
1/28/19 the mayor announced 13 volunteer members of the EC Study Group. So, on top of this shady “timeline two-step†between the mayor the study group & 2 city councilors, I understand at the city hall meeting yesterday that 4 chairs were made available for visitors/public. Yet, both the mayor’s chiefs of staff and 3 members of his finance office had seats at the conference tables, too. This too doesn’t reflect well on an image of a welcoming government, and efficiency in allocating the resources of manpower on the public payroll. It’s great that these meetings have been opened to the public. However, scheduling the meeting in a room of insufficient size to accommodate seats for visitors of any reasonable number AND lacking in municipal video recording capability smacks of a passive-aggressive move . . . . especially in light of the mayor’s initial plan to keep the meetings closed. The mayor states he wishes to enhance trust between his office and the public. This, unfortunately, is another example of a lack of awareness as to how city hall methods of approach, policies and actions appear to everyday citizens. Maybe what city hall needs is the addition of a Chief of Conscience to the municipal org chart.
Actually, there were only two chairs available to the public.
Two of the four chairs provided were taken by the AL reporter and the Finance Director for SMG.
The only recording of this very important meeting to taxpayers was made by a private citizen. Thank you.
As one of the public who attended the entire meeting, I can tell you that TJ Nelson, the Mayor’s representative, and Scott Rust, Purchasing Manager, were not exactly welcoming.
At open meetings, an agenda and at least one paper copy of all supporting documents are required to be made available to the public. When I asked Scott Rust for a copy of the supporting documents, he practically threw them at me. I guess he’s forgotten he works for the taxpayers.