FF: 34:00
If Greg would have actually watched the meeting, he wouldn’t sound so ignorant. I actually called his producer this morning to inform her that a large chunk of the discussion that led to Sierra’s outburst was edited out of their radio clip of the meeting. Let’s talk FAKE NEWS Greg. Yellow journalism at it’s best.
What led up to the incident actually had to do with Stehly calling a ‘point of order’ on the mayor. She asked him to NOT editorialize about what the commenters were saying. She made a good point, she said since the council can’t respond, he shouldn’t be able to. She was voted down, but not after Rolfing tried to call a recess that was actually seconded by Pat Starr and ignored by the mayor and council chair Rick Kiley. Rolfing stormed out of the room for the remainder of public input.
As the mayor tried to continue his comments, I calmly, but loudly stated while sitting. “This is public input time Mike. Our time. Not yours.” Something he has trouble getting thru his very thick skull. This is when Sierra had her curse session. I really wish she wouldn’t do that. I won’t defend her. All you have to do is talk down a bully, and you don’t have to curse to do it.
As for Belfrage’s comment “Parade of Kooks” he claims (but he doesn’t know because he didn’t watch the meeting) that NONE of the commenters talked about city business.
PUHLEEZE.
Here is a rundown;
Thor Bardon (candidate for city council) talked about the great care he got from Falls Community Health.
Janet Brekke (candidate for city council)Â talked about the Executive Order on Confidentiality and the City Clerk.
One lady talked about the city helping the homeless.
Sierra talked about the difficulty of working with the Chief of Police.
I talked about the city not having a good record of building 100 year buildings.
Bruce did a presentation on the train derailment.
Tim Stanga talked about public input.
David Z (former candidate for mayor) talked about the upcoming election.
Another gentleman talked about his treatment from Falls Community Health.
Another lady talked about getting a street light fixed. As she put it, “It took 3 Norwegians and and a German but we got it done.” In which the entire council and crowd burst into laughter.
Guess what? All city business, all pertinent for public input.
As many of the callers into B-N-B’s show pointed out, it’s the mayor that is causing these episodes. And like I said, I wish Sierra wouldn’t react the way she did, but she certainly didn’t start it. The mayor was attempting to chastise us and our testimony, yet NONE of it was out of order in any way. Was some of it a hard pill to swallow? Sure. But this is what public input is about, airing our grievances. If I wanted to tell a city councilor, the mayor or a city employee they were doing a good job, I would tell them to their face or send them a card.
Even Radio ‘Lifer’ Chad McKenzie decided he would weigh in on the topic. While Belfrage is just ignorant because he doesn’t bother to watch the meetings, McKenzie should really stick to talking about donuts and coffee, or whatever his show is about. Not sure. But he really has NO CLUE what the purpose of public input is. I suppose I could break down his diatribe paragraph by paragraph, but some of it is so ridiculous It’s not even worth my time, but I will comment on this;
We’re to the point where it’s become blatantly obvious that it’s now “personal” with this group. Over time they’ve become vindictive and downright mean.
It’s NOT personal with me, I just believe in open and transparent government, a right afforded to all Americans. As for turning off the cameras during public input. Go for it. We will just bring our own, as we have been, post it to YouTube which will just give us more traffic anyway.
But it is personal for a few people. I guess if you were jailed for 6 hours on a penny bond over a stack of shingles in the yard by the mayor (a case the city lost) and then later on during a public meeting at Carnegie the mayor physically assaulted you, breaking your tooth, you might have some ‘bad feelings’ towards the man. Just saying.
Did you see on KELO recently, where ThuneHaken said he wanted to replace public input with one-on-ones with the Mayor in the Mayor’s office?
Yah, I wonder how long that would last and where is the guarantee that the next mayor would continue them? Not to mention that such an idea is a great way to divide and conquer the citizens’ concerns….
As long as the City Council is more concerned about golfers than the issues surrounding a dead construction worker, then I am afraid the City Council meetings will probably continue to be out of control at times…..Because they are symbolic of the times, I am afraid….
I watched the meeting live on Channel 16.
This is the second time in a very short period of time that Sierra has been out-of-control at a City Council meeting.
This kind of behavior from anyone giving public input does not need to be tolerated by city officials or the public.
She’s lost whatever creditability she may have ever had.
1) The mayor went out if order in his response to a public input.
2) Theresa called him on it.
3) Council chair allowed this to happen.
4) If certain councilors tried this, kiley would have ended it. Unless of course, it is the mayor, then kiley is silent.
5) belfrage, in classic mmm protection mode says “big deal, let the mayor speak”.
6) Sierra was out of line.
7) Public input will end with entenman or tenhaken as mayor.
8) End of what little transparency this city has.
Scott, when you called in were you allowed to talk on the air, or were you just passing along the full context of what happened?
I just shake my head the way some you guys work yourselves into a frazzle each week during public input. You don’t have to denigrate a person to disagree with something that they do. You guys time after time try to turn things into something its not. And because of Sierra you all lose more and more credibility each week that it continues to go on.
It’s funny because you view yourselves as some tough rabble rousers. But you turn into snowflakes when someone from another blog or media writes something that you disagree with.
If you have never listened to Mckenzie in the morning aren’t you just as ignorant?
I don’t want to see public input go away or change but you guys make it really hard to keep it going as it currently stands.
anon – I would agree. Sierra is harming the process with her outbursts, and I don’t approve of it. It really does hurt credibility and she is ruining it for people with credible concerns. But I also think the mayor is NOT running the meetings properly.
Guest –
“If you have never listened to Mckenzie in the morning aren’t you just as ignorant?”
I think that actually makes me smart that I don’t waste my time listening to that blather.
WP- I told the producer I did NOT want to speak on air, and she did not ask me to. I just wanted to correct them on the fact they edited out what led up to the incident.
As I respect everyone’s comments someone should of 2nd theresa is call to order. What gives the mayor the right to speak and not council at public input . That’s bologne someone needs to call the mayor out he gets what he deserves. I will return on the 17th whoever doesn’t like input don’t watch it and council an go to the other room.
I feel that public input is required. New faces realize there’s a problem if citizens do not have a voice. Old faces might be grandstanding but they should be heard for their 5 minutes. The public repercussion is how presenters ramble or can’t control themselves. A call to order is needed when there’s anger or cursing. What I’ve observed is everyone with something to say recognizes city government does not represent residents. It’s a sophisticated criminal syndicate that benefits the mayor, developers, directors, and some on the council. The talk shows cater to the working class with formulated redneck off base opinions.
I don’t think I’m harming the process look what happen after my input 2 people arrested on huge marijuana bust in siouxfalls . End of story