In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
Friday, December 05, 2014
Change Commission Meeting Times, Please
Deferring to staff preferences, one Commissioner wants to keep the City Commission meeting time at 5 PM.
It's wrong.
As two Denver environmental activists at the Environmental Information Network wrote 20 years ago in "The Control Game," organizations deter citizen participation using a number of manipulative tactics, including this one:
Tactic 1 -- Make it impossible for people to be involved: These typical control tactics set things up so that it's difficult and inconvenient for interested parties such as the affected public to participate.
Examples:
* Meetings are scheduled at inappropriate locations or times; i.e., during regular working hours, highway rush hours, dinner times, or deliberately conflicting times with similar interest meetings. Strict meeting "guidelines" and use of question cards discourages real dialogue and keeps attendees under control…..
Read "The Control Game" before attending your next government meeting.
As Captain Marko Ramius says in the Tom Clancy movie, "The Hunt for October":
"I know their tactics. I have the advantage."
Commissioner Freeman's argument was spurious. One hour difference makes a difference to the residents, the ones who matter here. It is our public meeting. The convenience for staff is not even a consideration. In that hour, they can walk to any number of restaurants to eat dinner. What is your problem, Com. Freeman? Didn't you want our new Mayor to win one right out of the box? Shady and shoddy. Shame on you for your pettiness. And your thoughtlessness of those of use who have families and could use the hour between 5 and 6 p.m. to at least prepare dinner for them. Not all of us have housekeepers, nor can we afford to take time off work to meet the 5 p.m. start-up time. Please revisit this and give the residents a break.
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