Well it looks like I missed some fun and games at city hall Monday night. Not gonna get into much of what was said. I do want to discuss procedures.
Seems like some citizens had a few things
to say and then Councilmember Mickey Sandifer decided to wait until
"Miscellaneous Council Items" to get real down and dirty with a
member of the public. Based on eyewitness accounts and audio files this
is basically what happened next.
A citizen got up to rebut what he was
saying. Stephanie Meyer and Mickey Sandifer shouted out you can't do that
it is not allowed. City manager Nolan Sunderman whispered into the
mayor's ear with what was probably an interpretation of the council procedures
and the mayor said that the citizen couldn't say anything. It was not
allowed. Former Councilmember Jeff Vaught yelled out to that citizen to
sit down and that it was not allowed for them to speak during that part of the
meeting.
Well, that was bad information. On
Oct 26, 2015 Policy Statement 7 was modified in Section IV(D)(2) to give
citizens the right to speak during miscellaneous council items. And if
anybody is interested the Shawnee Dispatch had a nice article about that change
and it is still available on line at http://www.shawneedispatch.com/news/2015/oct/29/council-approves-additional-public-comment-meeting/
What is really interesting is Stephanie Meyer's quote in the above referenced article. "Anytime
we can increase public participation at meetings, I'm for it." Looks
like she became a little two faced on that subject. Guess citizen
participation is only good if she feels the same as they do. And this individual, who apparently now wants to restrict citizen input after saying how great
it was, wants to be mayor of our city. Which side of her mouth will she
be talking from tomorrow? She'll say just about anything to get
elected.
Now as for Vaught.....what gives him the right to
tell another citizen to sit down? What gives him the right to say it is
not allowed for them to speak at that time? Go back to various on line
articles and previous meetings before Oct 26, 2015. Jeff The Bully Vaught
was the major impetus for getting that part of the policy statement
changed. He had a nasty habit of using Miscellaneous Council items to say
some negative things about citizens and they couldn't, until the change, rebut
what he said.
As
for the City Manager, Nolan Sunderman, if he did in fact advise the mayor that citizen input was
not allowed at that time he was way off base.
