UPDATE II: Belfrage talked about the subject, listen HERE.
UPDATE: Councilor Brekke sent me this quote last night after the meetings;
“In my not so humble opinion there is nothing more important than the structure we operate under, that is the legacy we leave behind. All other issues will come and go. If the structure is flawed, the decisions made and outcomes achieved will be flawed as well. If the process lacks integrity and is not respected, the decisions made will lack integrity and respect as well. I cannot imagine anything more harmful to our City Government than losing respect for the decision making process.”
The excuses came out, but Cameraman Bruce and I tried to dispel them during public input during today’s informational meeting.
Presentation DOC;Â Transparency_in_Communication_Ordinance.pdf
Councilor Kiley said that there was only ‘Speculation’ that these communications were going on. Both Bruce and I told them that we had text messaged at least 5 of the councilors and 3 have responded during meetings, so there was no ‘speculation’. I have also seen many people comment on my site and FB that they text councilors during the meetings.
Councilor Soehl felt that since there wasn’t a statue saying text communications during meetings were actually public input, he could not support it. Hey, McFly, that is whole purpose of the ordinance.
Neitzert didn’t say anything except laugh during my input. He did however make a snark about reading notes off his cell phone at the regular council meeting.
Erickson went ballistic about not knowing about this. First off, she did know about it, secondly, Brekke who is helping Stehly with the proposal told Erickson that this was just a proposal and discussion and they have put nothing on the agenda yet and were asking for input. Oh, and councilor Erickson admitted she does property management work during the council meetings and settles disputes between her kids. Funny, I thought Christine was married to her business partner and very capable father who could handle the ‘leaky sinks’ while she did the people’s work a couple of hours on Tuesday Nights. Maybe we should let Stehly give piano lessons during the meetings?
My only suggestion would be to only ban text messaging and emails, I don’t have a problem with internet access to look up laws, research, etc.
I have a feeling that if Stehly does get this on the agenda, it will go nowhere, because the bratty RS5 need to have their cell phones so they can be coached on votes during the meeting. The irony is if they don’t pass this simple ordinance, they have NO idea what will happen the next time they are caught texting at a meeting, because at some point they will be wishing they just went along with it.