Two weeks ago at the council meeting, 2018 Charter Review appointee Kim Bentley stood up and accused me, a single citizen with no real power, of being a “bully”. (Why she felt this was a problem to alert council to is really up for interpretation) She used her opportunity to address council then to rake me across the coals. The entirety of her speech, transcribed from an audio disc I obtained from the Council office is included at the end.

When it came time for Poll Council (the council’s opportunity to address anything they wish) Councilman Bob Bailey said this, to me (also transcribed verbatim):

“Great debate tonight. I love it when somebody can share her personal opinion (notice he didn’t say ‘their’ but ‘her’. He doesn’t ‘love it’ when I share my opinion). Problem is, sometimes it may upset an individual, so if it were a debate Mr. President and I had to vote, I’d give Kim:1, Gerald: 0 ( I shouted from the audience at this point, “You represent me! Shame on you!”)
We don’t get an opportunity to respond to negative comments made to us. I’m simply, in a comedic way, thanking Kim for expressing a lot of my feelings on a personal level, things you’ve done to my family on a personal level so, its not always public and politics and if you want I’ll remind you what I’m talking about, but not here, so, thank-you Kim, thank you for your service and the other members that were on the commission. You’re right, you shouldn’t be bullied, you shouldn’t be challenged. You guys performed a public service, you did an excellent job, the finding in the report was excellent. We have something to work on and I apologize if I was out of line in talking to Jerry but that’s just the way I am.”

There were several outlandish statements in his comments, two of which I commented on last night in Poll Public. The first one actually lays out the specific definition of the word ‘bully’ as well as lays out the truth of the nature of city officials, citizens and criticism. The second video lays out for Councilman Bailey exactly what I thought of his comments. (I’ve included them also in written form at the end in case you can’t hear some of it) The final video then is of his response back to me, despite having been served the facts and the truth to him on a silver platter. At the end I’ll make a couple comments.

So, despite my, literally, giving Councilman Bailey the official definition of bully, he still chose to call me a bully. What are we to do in society when people, and in particular, people in positions of authority, ignore the facts because they don’t align with their self-interests? I assert that its unacceptable.

I proffered a book to Mr. Bailey several years ago which I thought he, as a ‘city leader’ should read. It was ‘Death and Life of Great American Cities’ by Jane Jacobs. A book much smarter than Mr. Bailey or myself. We’re lucky we get to live in the world Ms. Jacobs occupied and wrote on. When I handed it to him he said he’d give it to his wife to read because he’s not a reader. ‘She’d let him know what was in it’ (!). I was horrified to think that this man was in charge of people’s lives. Given that then and his utter repudiation of Merriam-Webster, I have to say that Councilman Bailey doesn’t belong anywhere in our government. Where is his reason, where is his intellect to do, as thoroughly as possible, the best job for the people that he’s capable of ? Is it all simply authoritarianism and uneducated opinions based on what other people inform him? I’m sorry to say but, that’s not good enough citizens. RIF. Reading is fundamental!

As well, what of a person who is being paid with, in part, my tax dollars, to represent and work for citizens and yet, lambasts one of them from the council dais?! Anyone can feel about me what they will but if, as Mr. Bailey and Ms. Bentley point out, that it is I who is the bully, what of, at the least, his behavior towards a constituent? I think its immature, biased, misguided and completely inappropriate. It shows a petulance that is beneath the seat he holds. And whether its him or others, I quite honestly feel its all in response to what they see as the WYHS educated ‘mean Mr. Smarty Pants’ with his ‘big words’ exposing their ineptness, their behaviors and their wrongdoing, all of which are an affront to our beloved city’s governance.

So too, if criticism of elected leaders is ‘bullying’, then we must excoriate the likes of the great Thomas Nast   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nast

or Mike Luckovich    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Luckovich

and Herbert Block, among many for their ‘bullying’ of elected officials, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herblock

or any great newspaper journalist in this country’s history who has exposed or criticized public officials. Hell, for that matter, why don’t we just go ahead and burn the U.S. Constitution while we’re on a tear!

There are many examples of Councilman Bailey’s authoritarian streak but this one defines him well. It is a council meeting I fully transcribed where they ‘discussed’ my charges that code enforcement was being wrongly implemented. (Remember, council work for me/us, not the government (That’s why they’re called representatives,…get it?)). If there is an issue which involves concern for the citizens and their rights, they have maximum obligation to sincerely, and thoroughly address the issue. In the meeting, Councilman Bailey, among others, obfuscated and minimized the concerns I brought forward, praised the code officials and Service Department and poo-poo’d and disrespected Councilwoman LaCorte and the citizens in the process. One of my favorite Bailey quotes (among many) was when he whispered to LaCorte, about me, (in a hushed conversation) “Hey, he’s gone through every one of us.” Yea, trying to find a single council representative who will actually represent the citizen’s interest and not ‘The City’s’?! How dare I!                                                                                                                               The full transcript is located on this blogpost, its an excellent read and very telling. Fully worth your investment.

THE PETTY TYRANNY OF WHITEHALL CODE ENFORCEMENT (PART FIVE) ***CITY COUNCIL EDITION***

The fact is Mr. Bailey is wrong; wrong for a seat on Whitehall City Council, that seat he has ‘served’ on now for over 9 years, in spite of term limits. That alone isn’t indicative of his ‘service’ but rather other pathologies here in Whitehall that, if we don’t change and fix, will continue to haunt this community for years.

2018 Whitehall Charter Review Commission member Kim Bentley’s Poll Public from May 1st:
“First of all I want to thank all of you for the positive changes I’ve seen in the last 7 to 8 years and putting up with the b.s. constantly from naysayers, one in particular. I have a problem and I can’t stand and do nothing. When dealing with bullies I tend to fight back. Now to address my problem…Gerald Dixon. I volunteered for the Charter Review Commission because I am so impressed with the direction Whitehall is headed and all the progress. The city has never been better. When I stepped up to volunteer I never imagined the constant intimidation while Dixon sat there taking notes for his blog and Facebook just to criticize our every word. Personally this made for an uncomfortable situation. I’m not biased and neither were other members. We shouldn’t be criticized for our opinions. No wonder nobody wants to volunteer putting forth the effort to then just receive Dixon’s criticism? I can’t even imagine putting up with this for years. You are elected officials are saints!
After reading his blog and email comments, these are his own words he had written, he had written; ‘the elected officials have no integrity, their character and actions are self-centered and they habitually disrespect’, just to name a few. These are his own words, but this describes Gerald Dixon, not our elected officials. Maybe that’s why he’s never been elected. The people see right through it. You (pointing at me) are a bully! He also wrote the Charter commission was rife with many conflicts. The charter commission didn’t take the time to research and investigate for themselves, he’s referring to term limits, is major b.s. We worked very hard and put in many hours of research and analysis to come up with our findings. We even went as far as to assign individual homework every week. I highly take offense to the disregard for me and my fellow members. Gerald, please note for your blog one of our homework assignments that we found, was surrounding cities do not, and I repeat, do not have term limits. He said that with such hatred and negativity and should be called out for exactly who he is, a bully. You need to present all the facts to the public Gerald, not just the ‘Gerald Dixon’ version.
Finally, if you’re so unhappy in Whitehall in the way things are done, then move. Try putting energy on something positive and productive. You might then become a happier person. And by the way Gerald, you would have a heyday with Columbus council.
Thank-you all for allowing me to address my problem. And please know that every one of you are appreciated by many.”

There is so much to refute here that my keyboard fingers are itching, but, I’ll let its illogical nature speak for itself.

For the record, here are my two speeches to council in case you couldn’t hear them well enough:

Poll Public #1

From the Merriam-Webster dictionary; Bully, (noun) ‘one who is habitually cruel, insulting, or threatening to others who are weaker, smaller, or in some way vulnerable’.
Citizen, with no governmental powers to change or sway the course of public policy or affect citizens lives exercising not only his first amendment rights but his civic duty to call out city officials wrong, in whatever means that affects the change sought….bully?
Government authority with the full powers of the city at their command: law, money, influence, power, beaurocracy, numbers, bully pulpits…vicitims?
In society it has been historic tradition amongst learned people to consult volumnes and editions and compendiums of information to certify that the word we use, the phrase we utter, the fact we espouse, is correct. One need only refer to the historically vaunted reference of Merriam Webster to determine then, before committing to the use of a word or phrase, whether one is using it in the right context. My stance is then, when the word ‘bully’ is aimed towards anyone, in particular a single citizen with no tangible power, I would advise the user to consult with a compendium like Merriam Webster before making that pronouncement, lest they appear foolish to other learned individuals.
While I am fully aware of citizens fulfilling a civic duty, and have publicly thanked them for it, they are nevertheless political appointees and while they are volunteers, they are still serving a city function in an official capacity. They are arguing the people’s business and as such, they fall under the rightful gaze and notation of the public, those who have a right to a) agree, b) ignore them or c) react in a critical fashion as they see fit. While agreeing with them needs little to no time to justify, a critical response demands the counterargument to make its case. Without anyone playing devil’s advocate or countering their arguments with critical thinking, you simply have a yes-person pathology. If I find the flaws in their arguments, it is my American right and civic duty to add what I feel I must. There was never any animus in my doing so.
Given this then, what we need is less righteous indignation over misconstrued beliefs and more adherence to tried and true avenues of learned comprehension, that comprehension which leads us to the knowledge that reveals the truth.

Poll Public #2

A couple pieces of business to tidy up.
Councilman Rodriguez, since I brought up the legitimate need for truck legislation a couple years ago and the Mayor and asst. city attorney made arguments against what they saw as the flaws in the legislation I helped draw up, I was curious how your work on that quality of life issue for the residents of Ward 1 is shaping up? Have you something drafted? What solutions, as our elected leader, have you come up with? As your constituent of Ward 1, I’d really like to hear your public answer.
As well, are any of you attacking the litter problem? Are you looking at laws which address the litter creators and how are you, as civic leaders taking charge to not only recycle but also reduce and reuse?

So too, what IS being done with all the speeders? Where are the cruisers giving out tickets? We have $16,000,000 to gobble up private property for development but we don’t have the money to adequately address another quality of life problem that afflicts the residential areas? What specifics can you offer to the citizens who are tired of this problem? Any other measures don’t seem to be helping. What specifically are you doing to solve the issue? Any of you?
Two weeks ago Councilman Bailey said, speaking to me, “I’m thanking Kim (Bentley) for expressing alot of my feeling on a personal level, things you’ve done to my family on a personal level…and if you want I’ll remind you what I’m talking about, but not here”. Thus then, he used his official capacity as a councilperson, to assert on a professional level, without equivocation, that I have done things, on a personal level, to his family. It is quite an allegation from a council representative to make against a private citizen from the council dais. As such, his outrageous but unclear broad statement deserve a public hearing, here in the same public space the allegation was made and not in private in the parking lot out back.
As well, the worst thing I heard two weeks ago came from Councilman Bailey too. He said to Ms. Bentley in response to her council speech vilifying me that, “You shouldn’t be challenged”. A political appointee, officially tasked with an official duty shouldn’t be challenged by the public? If that is his misguided understanding of how our government works, may I suggest that he emigrate to countries like China or North Korea or Iran where authoritarianism can be indulged in without the bothersome constraints of freedom, liberty or the United States Constitution. That Constitution of which I remind this body, was designed to protect the people from its government not the government from the people. In light of such a statement coming from a seat in our government, my advice then is that he either a) take a remedial course in Government 101 or b) he resigns.