Thursday, January 03, 2019

Open Government??? Transparency??? Not These Four!!!

Before I get into the subject matter let me wish everyone a Happy New Year.  I spent the holiday week out of town with the kids and grandkids and did have a white Christmas.  Also, found out somebody had apparently hacked my email address and sent out some strange emails to my contact list.  Hopefully that has now been corrected.

On to the subject matter.  If you have been following the previous posts then you know that I emailed the five council members who voted for Lisa Larson-Bunnell to fill the seat of Justin Adrian until a fall special election.  When councilmembers vote for an item like this they are substituting their votes for the citizens of a ward and also for the citizens of the entire city.  Since the newly appointed councilmember will take actions that affect the entire city.

I asked them to explain their rationale for voting for Ms. Larson-Bunnell.  Only one responded (Lindsey Constance) and as promised, her answer is posted below.

What about the other four?  Jim Neighbor, Matt Zimmerman, Stephanie Meyer and Mickey Sandifer?  It appears that these four public servants apparently feel that they don't have to answer to the citizenry for their actions.  Apparently they feel they are above it all.  Is it arrogance?  If any of these four ever say they are in favor of open and transparent government we can play the BS card.  Actually, we can play the liar card.  We can also play the arrogance card.  They need to be reminded that they work for the citizens and are accountable to the citizens.  All citizens deserve responses to questions.  Keep that in mind when three of these four (Stephanie Meyer, Jim Neighbor and Mickey Sandifer) come up for reelection in ten months.  And one of these individuals has also told some other whoppers.............more on that in a future post.

BTW, here is Lindsey Constance's reply.  I have a problem with some of what she says, but at least she replied.  Will probably comment on the problems at a future date:


Hi Ray,

Sorry I missed your email last week with the holiday. Regarding my choice to select Lisa, I felt that she did an exceptional job on the questions posed in the application. I was also impressed with her speech at the council meeting as well as her level of preparedness. The other thing that set Lisa apart was that she attended several of the meetings, spoke at one, and introduced herself to each Councilmember, providing them with resumes several weeks ago. 

I also appreciate the experience she brings from a legal perspective and feel that it will be a positive addition to the diverse backgrounds of others on the council.

From her speech as well as her written responses, I felt Lisa would be a person who will seek to bring together people with different ideas, which is a personality trait I appreciate in leaders. 

Thanks for sharing your input. I hope you stay safe and warm this week.
 





Lindsey Constance

Shawnee City Councilmember, Ward 4