In meeting #2 I was, again, the only non-governmental citizen in attendance. The attendance outside of myself and Councilman Larry Morrison had grown to include Council President Jim Graham (in the audience this time), Councilwoman Joanna Heck and Mayor Kim Maggard. When I initially wrote about my concerns with the Charter Review Commission I expressed how some of these people who visit it in an official capacity have levels of influence they bring to it. It is no stretch of understanding to say that high public officials bring with them a tinge of impressiveness or celebrity along with the gravitas of their positions. Some people in the room did not disabuse me of this notion. When the Mayor entered the room there was a general sort of excitement as if a celebrity had just arrived. The immediate concern which ran through my head in response was; if decisions regarding term limit recommendations are to be made (which have the ultimate possibility to effect Mayor Maggard), I can only hope they’ll be able to divorce themselves from their excitement shown and glowing remarks about her performance I’ve heard them share and commit to the critical judgement skills needed to discuss and/or make these recommendations, unfettered, from these worrisome exhibitions.

So, while the meeting was generally uneventful, the couple things that stood out were:

• They tabled discussion on the matter of term limits, i.e.- up to three/ending altogether, for another time.

• I spoke when they allowed me at the end of the meeting and pleaded with them to extend the public input time from the agreed on 3 minutes to 6 minutes as when discussing nuance (which no one does anymore) you can’t get across the import of a topic so quickly. I pointed out that no other non-governmental citizen was in attendance that evening or the prior one so if it was their concern that so many people taking 6 minutes a pop of their time was going to keep them there all night, I expressed my doubt of it as a true concern. I then handed out a small packet detailing, to a small degree, why I thought ending term limits/extending them to three was a bad idea. They thanked me, noted the time I’d spent compiling these papers (council never extends that appreciation to me) and thanked me for my time. They then made a motion to vote to keep or extend the public input, which, in the moment, I wasn’t sure I understood what they were doing or what they said. I had to ask one of them at the end what the vote had been and he told me it was to keep it at 3 minutes.

• As an added note, I will extend my appreciation to one of the members for holding the Mayor’s feet to the fire in finding applicants for department heads in a reasonable time. The Mayor herself runs the Public Safety Department and has for a year or more. She acts as the liaison to the safety forces but is also their boss. I believe it creates a conflict whereas the safety forces have to discuss items they may not feel comfortable discussing directly with the Chief Executive instead of a go-between. It has taken too long and so I say kudos to this Charter Review member who questioned this in regard to an item in the Charter.

( I have no doubt the length of time taken is due to the mayor taking too long trying to find just the most amenable sycophant to add to her full compliment of them at city hall. Dissent leads to cracks in that façade she’s taken great pains to construct, that which includes a bunch of yes-people who will help her keep that bullshit structure from coming down around her deserving head).

                        NEXT MEETING:

                    Monday March 26th

                               6:30 pm