Antics at City Council- what do you think?

[Habanero]

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0211flipper11.html


It's a family show- I love our Mayor!

 

[Chet]

Sheesh. Worst we've had is the uncouth country boy that doesn't realize he's swearing when he talks. You know the type, "Mr. Mayor my name is Earl J Citizen and I live at [address] way down at the f*cking end of the street. I wanna tell you I ain't fer this g*d dam* rezoning. I mean, who the F*ck needs another grocery store in town."

 

[donk]

How about when councillors flip desks over and physically threaten you? Happened to me at a committee meeting.

 

[Dan]

Got scolded today.

Yesterday night, during the Planning Commission meeting, I was caught on camera yawning. Supposedly all eight people watching the meeting on the City public access channel saw me.

 

[Downtown]

I have to really watch my eye rolling at public meetings. Some evenings after a particularly bad proposal or yahoo citizen outcry about something or other, i feel like i've almost shaken something loose with all my eye rolling.

 

[Planderella]

Got scolded today.

Yesterday night, during the Planning Commission meeting, I was caught on camera yawning. Supposedly all eight people watching the meeting on the City public access channel saw me.

Yawning is one thing, try actually falling asleep!

 

[Repo Man]

I have to really watch my eye rolling at public meetings. Some evenings after a particularly bad proposal or yahoo citizen outcry about something or other, i feel like i've almost shaken something loose with all my eye rolling.

I have the same problem, especially when a commissioner says someting that goes way beyond the issue at hand or the scope of their duities. Luckily we don't have cameras and I sit behind the commission.

The meetings at my first planning job would often get out of hand. One resident threatened the City Engineer, one alderman would just leave if he disagreed with something. The old mayor's wife claimed that someone punched her at a public hearing...I could probably list 100 more things that happened at these meetings

 

[kms]

Our town council are a bunch of sh@@heads. They accused the WWII vets who volunteered to renovate the memorial of using Gestapo tactics. One threatened that there would be an Easter parade over his dead body.

Our county comissioners have pages on the county's web site where they denounce each other and call each other names. For the whole world to see.

I guess it happens everywhere.

 

[BKM]

Links, please, kms?

 

[Habanero]

I'd love links to that-

I always sit off camera, sometimes you can see my hand and that's it. I even make sure to step away enough so that I'm off camera if a resident comes up to speak against the project so my rolling eyes are not caught on tape.

 

[el Guapo]

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0211flipper11.html


It's a family show- I love our Mayor!

I'm with Reztger - there is no more pure and highly distilled political speech than the personal double eagle to an elected official. If they charge him please let me know and I'll send some money to his defense fund.

Politics are not the family hour.

 

[JNL]

What's with broadcasting city council meetings? Do many people actually watch them? Are they recorded rather than just transcribed so that all hand gestures and physical assaults are preserved in full colour in case of later prosecution?

 

[Zoning Goddess]

What's with broadcasting city council meetings? Do many people actually watch them? Are they recorded rather than just transcribed so that all hand gestures and physical assaults are preserved in full colour in case of later prosecution?

I have been "televised" for over 10 years at 2 jurisdictions. So far, I have not had to explain what I do to my exterminator, hairdresser, neighbors, or any of the other parents and/or children at my son's school. They have all seen it! Of course, it is always "We were just flipping thru the channels and little Britney/Austin said, there's Conner's mom!". I still wonder who watches the meetings, do they have a real life?

My best county commissioner stories are: 1) During a public meeting on a rezoning, a commissioner put his cowboy boots up on the desk, leaned back, and said "Ya can't tell a man what to do with his own land..." (we were certain someone would report that one to the state, but nobody did); 2) The preacher who wanted to convert a house into a church and gave all sorts of promises about improvements. The P&Z chairman looked him in the eye and said "Yeah, and the road to you-know-where is also paved with good intentions" (church shot down); 3) During a huge public hearing where deputies were following all the citizen nutcases around and searching everyone at the door, the chairman pretended to drop the gavel to the floor, leaned over and made a motion absolutely nobody but the other commissioners heard, they voted, they left, and planning staff was abandoned to the crowd.

 

[Trail Nazi]

I just think that it is funny that the Council actually thinks it is a "family show". Sure, I want my child to learn about good old boy politics, deceit, being mean to staff, cruelty to your neighbors, adults screaming at each other, and obscene gestures from local live television broadcast where they can't control anything about what is being put over the airwaves because we all know that the techs in the booths monitoring the meetings are doing something more interesting than watching a city/county public hearing. Granted most of the public does behave at the meetings, but the deceit from the politicians can be down right awful. Public hearings should be rated for either PG-13 or mature audiences only.

 

[SW MI Planner]

Our council meetings are taped and televised. We went to get new bathroom fixtures and the girl there said "I saw you on tv the other day". I purposely never watch them.

Our council meetings are pretty mild mannered. Sometimes we get people in to speak, but very rarely. Once in a while we have either council or staff cracking jokes. Monday however, it was ME that made a comment that won't be lived down. A rezoning was up before council and they asked me if what I thought PC would do if they sent it back. So I said "On any given day, I'm not sure what they PC would do". Ok, first of all - who knows what they would do - it's a committee made up of citizens and they always have followed my recommendations, but they don't *have* to. Well, the ENTIRE council and audience goes quiet then they start laughing. Oops. Apparently the way I said it sounded like PC was wishy washy. I talked to the Council later and they all thought it was funny, and they knew I didn't mean how it came out, but I still felt like an @$$.

 

[giff57]

Our council meetings are taped and televised. We went to get new bathroom fixtures and the girl there said "I saw you on tv the other day". I purposely never watch them.

On two different occasions, this crazy lady from town has yelled, "You looked handsome on FPAC" . The last time the wife and I were tring out the new eating establishment. I hate Public Access TV.

 

[kms]

Our county commissioners don't put their views on the county's web page - it's on Smart Growth's:

http://www.smartgrowthpa.org/links.asp

There is a section for county gov't which lists the commissioners' names. The middle one is ok, but the other two don't get on well, and use a whole lot of words to communicate it.

 

[el Guapo]

Public access and public meeting television coverage are a necessary evil. It sucks for staff, but it needs to be available to the few that do watch. They are like sunshine laws that encourage free and easy access to government. We should never forget who we are working for, even if they have a "In Memory of 3" on their bicep.