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.
Was an interesting city council weekly meeting, but a little boring. It’s still my opinion that the men should all wear neckties. Also, why does the city attorney always look angry and even more so when he has to answer questions.
Scott, as I stated at the meeting, we get paid approx. $1400 a month. The public expects our undivided attention to the business at hand during the meetings. Cell phones should be shut off and email correspondence put off until the meeting is over. It’s really very simple and easy to do.
Ya know this was an interesting debate and frankly, one that is just stupid to not adhere to. It only takes one lawsuit and discovery of some embarrassing items on someone’s phone, email, pc to put egg on their face. Maybe one of these cousilors needs to get burned badly on some discovery for the others to take notice.
It comes down to basic common respect and “being present” at the meeting for the 1-2 hours. Maybe to make a point Janet and Teresa should just get up and go talk to people in the audience, take a phone call, or just start up a side conversation. This would obnoxious behavior would illustrate how disrespectful that is. On a side note, Kiley really came off as an @ss and was very flippant
In regards to the information meeting, leave it to Councilor Kiley to both challenge this and let his arrogance shine.
“Also, why does the city attorney always look angry and even more so when he has to answer questions.”
Just watch this interview with him, he admits he knows little about muni law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbf4Y5vjLeg
Perhaps a better way to handle this is citizen robocalls and texts to councilors during meetings. With phones set on vibrate there could be an earthquake at Carnegie.
It’s cool to take your phones into a jury room too, right councillors? How else would they know how to “vote”?
The informational meeting today got me thinking about public input and communication during council meetings. I think if Stehly and Brekke want to limit cell phone use during meetings, maybe try to prevent anyone on the agenda from communicating with councilors during the meeting using text or email or at least require disclosure. I think we’d all agree it would be questionable for a councilor to privately be communicating with someone who is seeking council action (such as a developer seeking a zoning change) via email or text during a meeting. Focus on where there are most likely to be abuses rather than a blanket ban if you want to get something passed.
I also liked the discussion about finding ways to expand public input. What if the public could provide written input prior to the meeting and that could be included in the meeting packet and on SIRE for the council’s and the public’s consumption. Wouldn’t necessarily have to be read during the meeting. I think there are a lot of people that might want to submit a written statement, but can’t make the meeting in person or aren’t bold enough to go to the microphone.
Another thought would be to make it easier to communicate with the council by having public office hours where people can come in and talk to council members about their concerns. Lots of ways to give the public more feedback and input options.
MP, wouldn’t the simple thing to do is just ban all electronic communication during the meetings? I’m not sure why giving up the phone for a couple of hours is that difficult. A few years ago I went to a friends cabin in the hills. They have no phone service where it is. They asked me if I had a problem with that. Uh, no. I didn’t use my phone for two days, it wasn’t the end of the world.
“What if the public could provide written input prior to the meeting and that could be included in the meeting packet and on SIRE for the council’s and the public’s consumption. Wouldn’t necessarily have to be read during the meeting. I think there are a lot of people that might want to submit a written statement, but can’t make the meeting in person or aren’t bold enough to go to the microphone. ”
When they have quasi judicial decisions they do have to release all of this correspondence, and it does appear on SIRE before the meeting.
I think they have tried the ‘office hours’ thing before and ‘coffee with the council’. In fact I have been to several ‘coffee with the council’ at HyVee. Janet and Theresa had one this past winter, I remember because it was one of the coldest days of the year. They usually get over a dozen people showing up to talk.
Matthew Paulson, those are GREAT suggestions. Thanks for coming to the meeting last night and watching the meetings. Giving public input at meetings takes courage. Thanks also for reminding me that you reached out to make a comment after the Internal Auditor was hired. (It was a good meeting last night with little cell phone usage. A much more respectful atmosphere.)
Anonymous (#7) has a point. I should think if there’s dissent, councilors phone records could be subpoenaed. A specific text could negate a vote. Something like: ‘Vote No for a thousand’ then copy all.
Scott – The biggest reason that I think you can’t do a total cell phone ban is that it’s not realistic that councilors shouldn’t be able to take emergency calls or be able to answer quick texts from family members or their employees. Being a city councilor is not a full-time job and doesn’t pay a full-time salary. Every city councilor has other responsibilities to their family and to their other jobs (if they have them) and to completely shut yourself off to the world and eliminate that lifeline doesn’t seem reasonable for a part-time job. Generally speaking, councilors should be paying attention during meetings, but if I were a councilor and my kid had a medical issue or an emergency where I needed to leave right away, I’d want to know about it as soon as possible. I don’t think it’s reasonable for a family member to have to call another city employee to relay a message during a council meeting.
I know that you don’t think giving up your phone for a couple of hours, but you also have a job that ends at 5 PM and you don’t have children to the best of my knowledge. It’s different when you have kids or you are a business owner and have employees that need to be able to get in touch with you in the event of an emergency. Most of the time it’s not an issue, but on the rare occasion, it is, and that lifeline needs to be available.
I think the better approach is to find specific types of communication that are problematic and require disclosure of them. I don’t think the votes for an outright ban are there.
Matthew Paulson, I do think putting the phones away is a great idea..and the public seems to support turning the phones off.
We have very responsible, trusted staff members who can handle emergency notifications.
The council raised the threshold to get elected to the office of City Council to ensure a higher quality of service. Turning off the phones and giving full attention to the business at hand during Council meetings falls in line with a higher level of respect, maturity and accountability. We can put our phones down and serve the citizens with100% effort at meetings. The public will appreciate it.
One more thing to consider: How will the public perceive a candidate for City Council who states that they will need to leave their phone on during the City Council meetings so they could attend to business matters, private email/text correspondence and personal affairs? I can see this becoming an issue in 2019..similar to the issues of transparency, public responsiveness and fiscal responsibility were in 2018.
Brekke, Retired, no kids at home
Stehly, self-employed, no kids
Starr, employed, kids at home and spouse
Erickson, self-employed, kids at home and spouse
Soehl, self-employed, no kids at home
Kiley (employment?), no kids at home
Neitzert, works from home office, kids at home and spouse
Selberg, employed, kids at home(?)-may be in college, spouse
As you can see, there is NO reason anyone needs to be contacting them during meetings for business or minor issues with kids. The only reason would be something life threatening to family. Yes, they are part-time, but when they are working that part-time job, they need to concentrate on it. I have worked many part-time jobs and my employers asked me to turn off my phone or leave it in the car.
Theresa/Scott – I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on whether or not it’s okay for a councilor to take a text from their spouse, child or employees during a meeting. I don’t think it’s a big deal, you two disagree, and that’s okay.
Theresa Stehly – I heard from another citizen today who pays close attention to city politics that he was tired of the council focusing on process and procedures issues, rather than issues that have an impact beyond the walls of Carnegie Hall (such as roads, workforce, homelessness, etc.). You perceive that potential councilors that have a family and other jobs that might need to take a text during a meeting could hurt their election chances. I’m not sure that’s the case.
I think the bigger political liability is focusing on what the public may think are minor issues or issues that are inconsequential to the city as a whole. You guys did a great job on the home purchase program in the Lotta Ave neighborhood. The entire council responded to it quickly, found the money, helped home-owners in need and made a good long term decision for the city. I think that’s the kind of stuff the public wants the council to focus on. I don’t know that the general voting public is too worried about cell phone use during meetings, whether it’s okay to charge $20.00 for tickets to public events or whether public input should be limited to 3 minutes or 5 minutes.
Mattehw Paulson,
Part of what we do on the Council is to set policy. The Lotta Avenue situation was a good start. It is going to take more money and more programming to pull it off in a satisfactory manner for all involved. There are still many unanswered questions. It is not a done deal.
The folks I have been getting input from feel very strongly about the council using cell phones during the meeting. There is support from the community for this.
The citizens need to realize that we are being paid to be at these meetings…Approximately $1400 a month. The least we can do is turn off the cell phones and be attentive to the business at hand for the Tuesday meetings.
I think Janet Brekke defended the importance of good procedure very well in a statement she put out this morning:
“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.â€
The general voting public voted for Janet Brekke in a big way. She and I are both getting very good feedback about this particular issue. It seems that the people who are most opposed to a City Council meeting “cell phone ban” are the ones who are participating in the practice of cellphone communication during the meeting.
When the cell phones are not being used, there is a elevated sense of maturity, attentiveness and integrity .
As far as making good decisions…I have received many words of thanks and appreciation for the efforts that Councilor Pat Starr and I made to stop the funding for the downtown multi-use parking ramp. We did not go along with the “herd mentality” and jump on board for a project that was flaming with red flags. Our colleagues pushed forward anyway.
As far as homelessness, I have been a big supporter of the Bishop Dudley house, spending a night last fall sleeping in their parking lot for a awareness/fundraising effort. I also have been a big advocate for the St. Francis House and the Union Gospel Mission. I have even taken a homeless person into my home in the past.
Pat Starr led the effort to give land to the Glory House expansion.. I was right behind him ,as were many council members.
Workforce development: Since elected, I have been promoting the “inmate initiative”. I met with our warden Daren Young before the last Mayoral election to start the discussion about using work release workforce to help with the needs of our community..specifically the “scoop it” program. Our conversation spun into other areas that the program could be used to supplement out city workforce needs. I met with Mayor Paul Tenhacken during the campaign and several times after he was elected to discuss my ideas with him. He took my ideas and ran with them and has since worked to implement them.
I led the charge to do the first ever “Council Budget Working Session” . You were listening to the 4:00 informational last Tuesday and you heard our Finance Director Shawn Pritchett state that he was using information from that working session as he was setting priorities for the City Budget. We had a very productive group effort that was successful in bringing citizen concerns to the table.
Councilor Pat Starr and I heard the citizen concerns about potholes this spring and proposed allocating extra funds for the effort. As a result, the pothole effort was put in high gear. I plan to allocate even more money into street repair in the next budget making it a top priority.
We also proposed a resolution requesting that the Mayor open the Event Center study group up to the public. Transparency requested, transparency revived.
I could list many other examples of actions taken by the council and by individual councilors to help the public good. Asking for the highest level of integrity at the meetings is also important.
I think the general public is very concerned with transparency , potholes and affordable living. They also want to feel that they are being listened to. Maybe the folks where you live Mathew ,have different priorities. Tell them to call or email me, so I can hear from them as well. But the people who reach out to me are speaking from a different perspective than you are.
In closing, I believe that putting down the cell phones and prohibiting email exchanges during the meetings , is a good thing.
If the process and procedures issues that your friend is tired of hearing about affects the average citizen….then
we will still need to address them.. Because we can never grow tired of helping the citizens.
MP
I agree with your stance in theory and if this council and the previous had worked on things we really wanted and spent money wisely, this would be a no brainer. Lets review the HORRIBLE decisions over the last 6 years or so.
1 – Premier Center – This was not needed had roofing issues and the last administration only clawed back a small amount of money. Total waste of tax dollars and brought a bunch of low paying jobs.
2- Aquatics Center – Unnecessary and a waste to tax dollars, not to mention we got rid of a perfectly good pool
3- Admin Building – Unnecessary and a waste of tax dollars. We could have used the previous building and bought it for half of what we paid. I believe Greg actually championed trying to not build and buy
4 – Parking Ramp – Where do I start, oh boy. Bad idea to begin with as all it would have given the community is a bunch of low paying services jobs. It smells of corruption and we had a chance to back out and then doubled down on stupid with this new council. Now we have a parking ramp that we are on the hook for
5 – We now need a new water treatment center which we SHOULD pay for and had been put on the back burner because we bought all this unnecessary crap
6 – Not keeping up with street repairs properly and we have pot holes in this city that look like we had an IUD go off
So while I get what you are saying, I am pissed at these elected officials and the ONLY thing that is happening are the developers are getting TIFs and crushy contracts and making bank while we get shitty roads, an outdated water treatment center, and higher taxes. So excuse me if I want you to put your F@cking phone down, sit up, pay attention or a least act like it, and start spending our tax dollars wisely. It’s ludicrous it has even come to this and this excuse of I need my phone in case of X is a BS argument. We didn’t have them 15-20 years ago and if you did you were not glued to them as they did nothing but make calls.
I was a little taken aback by Christine Erikson’s response. Her rebuttal of, I have kids or have property etc. Well guess what thats not my problem, have care set up for your kids and have someone else take care of your properties. I can tell you this, if I had an important project going on at work (which I do all the time) and told me boss, hey I can’t concentrate in my meetings or participate at 100% because I got rental property to take care of, that would not fly and it would be reflected in my review and I may be tagged for elimination when its time to make cuts. I think they are BS arguments because it “appears” that maybe.
Is it really too much to ask that you put in the 3 hours a week that you get paid pretty well for might I add and pay attention. So while I get that you and others may be annoyed spending time on procedural issues which I agree with, we wouldn’t have to if this council would give people the respect they deserve and “be present”
Thanks for your response Theresa.