UPDATE: Apparently Selberg is proposing this because the meetings are supposed to be family friendly;
“They’re getting a show that’s not very family friendly sometimes,” he said.
Makes you wonder how ‘family friendly’ the Continental Congress was? What a putz.
So the first action/legislation of new Vice-Chair Selberg is to tell the public their input doesn’t matter. I knew it wasn’t a good idea to elect him vice-chair. He is proposing the first reading on June 12th to move public input to the back of the meeting, Councilor Rick Kiley is expected to support the measure to get it on the agenda.
As I have mentioned in the past, this could seriously backfire on them if they pass this. You could get citizens sitting through the meetings and commenting on every single item. Than at the end of the meeting chewing out the council for some of the crappy decisions they made throughout the night. If you think the meetings are long now, just wait.
But what makes this even more egregious is that there hasn’t been a public discussion about this. They just had a working session about public input and NO one brought this up, in fact Councilor Neitzert specifically said he did not want to talk about it – obviously he knew about the proposal. The rumor is that Mayor TenHaken is pushing this behind the scenes and getting Lloyd Companies Realtor Selberg to do his dirty work.
I also believe the developers are behind it. I think after Lloyd Companies got their asses handed to them over the failed apartment land deal on 6th street they saw the power of public input and how it can squash their devious plans.
Councilor Theresa Stehly said this to me about the action, “It’s an assault on citizens free speech rights. A direct action to suffocate and annihilate the citizens voice at council meetings.”
The purpose of public input is to educate and influence public policy and not to just comment on it…. By moving it to the end of the Council meetings, our Council is admitting that they don’t want input and they really don’t care what the public thinks…
“Family friendly,” huh? Just how “Family friendly” was a decision to sign-off on a Legacy/Hultgren deal after the collapse?…. You know, construction workers have families too, not just golfers….. 😉
The rumor is that Mayor TenHaken is pushing this behind the scenes and getting Lloyd Companies Realtor Selberg to do his dirty work.
Been wondering how long his honeymoon period would last.
If this is true, our mayor has just taken his first misstep.
Our Mayor needs to shave and wear a tie. He looks like a college intern when next to other dignitaries, and when interviewed on TV during public announcements and ribbon cuttings….
He seems to struggle for words as mayor as well. Being mayor isn’t necessarily the same as running a tech company. Just because you can successfully create a business doesn’t automatically make you a policy wonk or one who is all eyes and ears to such a reality…. Perhaps, “Leadership Teams” is just merely a way to pass the buck and let others know and or learn the facts…..
I guess though, that one of the tricks of “Leadership Teams” is to have others do your dirty work, huh?…. (“Uh, Selberg, I need you to take the lead on this input thing…”)
#SHAVE!
If you guys think Lloyd gives a crap about public input, you crazy.
MP,
You’re right… They probably don’t like it…. 😉
When the developers were pushing the tax increase/platting fees for arterial roads I attended the meeting at Carnegie. The place was packed with Developers to testify they wanted this (because they knew we would be paying the lion’s share of it). While I was in the bathroom before the meeting started Craig Lloyd was joking with another guy about public input and essentially making fun of what the public thinks.
Family friendly? Are you kidding me? Every one of these family friendly guys, from the mayor, to his lemmings, ALL voted for trump!!! Don’t tell me about “family friendly.â€
Perhaps the best answer is to declare ‘Sovereign Citizen’ and refuse to acknowledge city government. Just walk up to the podium at any time. The jail is full, what are they going to do?
What? Trump is not “Family friendly?” But he keeps remarrying someone younger and gets more kids out of the deal too. It seems to me that a guy like that is “Family friendly.” The more the merrier…. “It’s going to be HUGE!”….. “It’s going to be AMAZING!”
Government can place reasonable restrictions on time, place and manner of protected speech, just not content. It sppears that is what is being proposed here. If I were a councilor I would be rightfully concerned about the integrity of public input given recent events. History has shown that when given a privilege if people cannot self regulate, then regulations will be imposed upon them. We should all watch this closely but I don’t think the sky is falling.