Belfrage calls Public Input ‘Parade of Kooks’, McKenzie “Whack-a-Doos “
l3wis 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.
