At the Council meeting of Feb. 18, 2020, in her ‘poll council’ statement, Councilor Elmore said this:

While it may seem innocuous and with only a spirit of communicating with your elected representatives about issues, knowing fuller understandings of things at City Hall, I feel it’s not that simple and so wanted to express how I feel that is.

In her message, she says to stay off social media. That if you have issues you want to discuss with Council, that talking with them after the meeting is the forum to do that.

Here is what I feel are the flaws in her statement and what I find concerning about it:

a) If she wants us to stay off Social Media, does that include the City of Whitehall, W.C.C.A., the Police Department and Whitehall City Schools Facebook pages too, or just ones where the public discusses and debates what City Hall and Council are doing with our government? Sites like ‘Whitehall Personal Point of View’ and ‘Whitehall 411’ and ‘Whitehall Counterpoint’, et al?

b) She, as a Council representative, does indeed represent citizens but is waist deep in her associations with a government and officials whose untrustworthy actions and reputations help to soil hers. As such, when she entreats you to come on down and have conversations after the meeting it must be taken and viewed with a rightful measure of distrust and cynicism. Her cheerleading for ‘Team Maggard’ is consistent and when put against the help Mayor Maggard gave her in backdoor promotion for her campaign in 2017 by holding a city press conference in then-candidate Elmore’s front yard, those ignored conflicts of interest in that situation, by all, give rise to rightly earned distrust. Is she being honest and forthright or is she merely shilling for someone who helped her reach her position? Because Councilor Elmore either didn’t consider the public trust when running for office or exerted a principled response to the Mayor’s offers, we then can’t trust that her words, behavior or actions are truly acting in independent ways. This is no one’s fault but her own.

The Mayor could’ve heeded the public trust by also having a press conference in candidate Leslie LaCorte’s front yard, but, as it turned out, she only utilized candidate Elmore’s yard for city publicity in 2017. 

c) The Council meetings are lame in terms of communication, in public, with our representatives in government. It is nothing more than a constrained chute they force you through where communication is controlled to little to nothing. You may speak at two 3-minute periods and only on one particular topic once a meeting. As well, you can’t speak at all in the back. That’s not ‘communication’, that’s merely rapid bleating. The only time you can actually have a conversation with your representatives is in private, away from the eyes and ears of public scrutiny. Council meetings otherwise are, basically, them talking out loud as they wish to, as much as they wish to, four times a month and then you, Joe Citizen, given mini-speeches, essentially relegated to say what you need to away and in private. Who does this serve? City Hall.
I have recommended ways to have communication forums but, its apparently lit zero fires under government’s posteriors. Curious, wouldn’t you say? This is from over 2 years ago.

The fact is, they generally don’t like to communicate with citizens in public where they may be shown to be wrong, be seen as foolish or ignorant, expose their lack of education on matters or say something which they’ll have to answer to.

d) Why stay off social media? Is it because City Hall can’t control the narrative? That information (like what I give) may paint a different picture than the one they’ve painted for you? BINGO!
When there are alternate voices that aren’t theirs which aren’t part of the bullshit controlled narrative they spoon-feed the citizens (all is well, nothing to see here, comply and consume) it puts their schemes and plans in jeopardy. And just like the medieval Monarchy’s of old who hated the printing press for giving people information that wasn’t simply the King’s propaganda, so too do underhanded, authoritarian, manipulative governments hate that citizen’s have access to criticize, analyze and point out what’s ‘fishy in Denmark’. After all, Social Media is where I am, its where you see these blogposts distributed. Its where information is proffered and dissected and discussed and debated amongst the citizenry, away and out of their hands which they use to control all that. Without propaganda and spoon-fed bullshit, their game is exposed and now maybe, just MAYBE, they might have to actually BE trustworthy and give a damn what the citizens want over what the corporations and wealthy interests want, that which help steer their policies.

So…until City Hall has actual meetings with free-flows of discussion, where people can actually have (civil and informed) Q & A’s and discussion with elected officials (those we can actually trust) then Social media appears to be ‘the people’s’ outlet and forum for these kind of discussions for now.