City Council
Thursday, April 30, 2009
This post will henceforth serve as a place to discuss the commotion at today's city council meeting. The recall of four city council members is a serious issue and I urge each of you to avoid a mob mentality and to think about this critically.
As I receive more information complete biographies of the possible replacements will be posted at the CDN.
Please remember to list your name, anonymous comments will be deleted immediately.
Remain courteous, keep in mind that not everyone in the community will hold the same opinion you do.
As moderator I reserve the right to delete any comment that I deem inappropriate although I sincerely hope that will not be necessary.
10 comments:
I personally think that all of this is quite hilarious. We just had re-elections for the city council in which no one else ran against any of us, but now it appears that suddenly the people of Camelot are unhappy with the way things have been running. We try our hardest to make sure that everyone is happy, but that is an impossible task. So to those people that think they can do a better job, good luck because it is harder then what it appears.
TJ Honeycutt head of CANT.
It has come to my attention that I was nominated to run for a reconstituted City Council. The thought had crossed my mind previously to run against the Council we had; being as I was on several occasions required to remind the Council whose money they were spending. But I thought my work as part of CANT, such an important organization to the city, would be hindered by my taking a more active role civically. We are a small, but vocal organization, and I thought that perhaps having my voice heard through the medium of the City Council would be counterproductive to our overall goal of preventing fiscal irresponsibility and increased taxes on the people of our town who already give enough. But the waywardness of our City Council has shown me that I was mistaken, and I hope this miscalculation will be forgiven.
I, unfortunately, was not in attendance of today's Council meeting because of personal business, but I am proud that the people have spoken clearly against raising taxes, fiscal irresponsibility, and the defunct City Council. As I have already said, the only reason I did not run for City Council in the most recent election is because I had thought I could do more for the city by organizing a strong constituency against increased taxes and crack-brained fiscal policy. But with the city in such a state, I must answer the call of my fellow citizens.
I accept any nominations for a new and vastly improved City Council.
TJ Honeycutt
In a response to Mr. Honeycutt, had you of been present at todays meeting you would of been very happy, because we decided not to raise taxes at all and we were trying to figure out how to give back money to the community in the form of a tax break. When figured up though, it appeared that everyone in camelot would only be getting about a dollar back. We were unable though to pass this motion in the time allowed due to the petition that had been circulating.
This city council meeting was definately an interesting one. Today the council seemed to be set on getting the budget set in the beginning of the meeting by keeping the pediatric center, abolishing planned parenthood idea, and allowing the women's health center, then all forward motion seemed to stop and the members of the city started to argue about how the rest of the money should be spent and raised a question of taxes. I feel that is why the people of the city called a recall vote, they are sick of nothing getting done at the council meetings. I understand it is very difficult to find a happy medium for everyone in Camelot because we are such a diverse community, but it seems to me that when we have one disagreement the council freezes and does not want to upset anyone. We elected the council because we trust them and thier judgment. I feel like they need to take a stand sometimes and make a decision. I like how they discuss with us, but after 20 min of discussion with nothing being accomplished I think the council should take into consideration all our ideas, but then buckle down and do what they think is best. The meeting today was a little chaotic, but I feel it is just because the citizens of Camelot want some action. Good Luck to everyone who is running and I hope those who get elected can provide the citizens with what we want and need.
Cassie Davis
Feminist Majority
I agree with Cassie. As an attorney, I was asked about drafting a legal document pertaining to the recall of the four council members. Even though there was an election for new City Council members, many of the citizens of Camelot did not vote for all five candidates. Through many discussions, the community agreed that those Council Members subject to the recall were not performing their duties responsibily. I also want to add that it was decision to recall those particular City Council Members was not determined by personal bias, but rather the performance of their job.
After turning in the nomination petitions, I am confident with the four nominees that will be announced shortly.
I hope the City Council does not hold a grudge against the citizens of Camelot, but rather take their passion for the community, and continue to express it in other various activities.
As much as I appreciate the comments and concerns from the citizens of the city, it has to be said that being a council member is an extremely hard job. We have to consider everyone's views, wants and needs and that in itself makes it difficult to get things done during meetings. Money is obviously a touchy subject in the community, so no one really wants to talk about it and make definitive decisions because we know that someone in the community is going to have a problem with it. Balancing a community of such headstrong people is almost impossible.
While the community may be upset that meetings do not produce instant results, it's only because the council has the community's best interests in mind and we're attempting to find the best solution for everyone. I want to thank the community for preserving my seat on the council and I hope the new nominees are prepared for the extremely daunting task in front of them. Please consider keeping your council as is.
Thank you very much for your time and patience.
Tedra Tague
Professor, Camelot State University
Council member
First of all, I also would have to agree with Cassie. I had high hopes for the meeting last Thursday when the meeting first started, the council made decisions and it didn't take forever. But then when it came to the taxes it went to the usual city council meeting, nothing happened and the council went to their normal routine of talking among each other. I feel like the council is afraid of making some people mad, but as they have said, it is hard to please everyone..so why try to? Why not just vote for what is best for the city (especially if the majority of the citizens were for the issue)? I mean with the exception of this past meeting not one person on council had ever voted against something..and when councilwoman Lowther did she was commended by another council person. Another problem that I found in the meeting last Thursday was the fact that council took a vote of the citizens about who wanted a tax increase and who was opposed to it. The vote showed that the majority of citizens wanted a tax increase to pay for all the projects on the budget. But did the council pass this?! NO council person Lowther just stated that in a comment above! Why would the council not pass something that the majority of citizens voted for?
My second point is for council members. First council woman Lowther, I would think that since your seat on the council is up for question that you would be taking this a little more seriously, rather than saying that you found the meeting to be “quite hilarious”. I personally think that last Thursdays meeting was LONG overdue and I was surprised when nobody ran in the election because I know that there was talk of people being unhappy with the current council. In my personal opinion I think that you need to be replaced, I feel like you don’t give your opinions and when you do give an opinion, it is not very clear. As for the rest of the rest of the council members, I feel like you are more worried about making everyone happy. I think that it’s ridiculous that we have spent two and a half meetings on the budget and very little has even been decided on. I understand that money is a touching subject, but you have to draw the line somewhere because there are other issues (like the obscene photograph issue) that are on the agenda.
This is ridiculous. I can see trying to get rid of one or maybe two members, but four?! This citizens of Camelot need to just calm down and realize that it is a hard job to be a council member. Not just anyone can do it. Yes, there may be better people to help out my police issues, but either way somebody or some group of people will be mad. I disagree with replacing these four council members.
Nate Felver, President Police Benevolent Association
Personally, I was disappointed in our current city council. Having said that however, I know that holding such a position is an extremely daunting and difficult task. Trying to please everyone is impossible and taking the city's best interest into account is the goal at hand. I certainly hope the new council members are up for this challenge, and I wish them all the best of luck. I would also like to thank the former council members for putting forth their best efforts. Hopefully the new council can drive Camelot forward!
Maria Neff
Student Body President
Camelot State University
I would like to replace at least two members of the current city council. The main reason I found is that I don't see a complete representation of the whole community. I like to see the city council in control of the issue, however, when it comes to make a decision I want them to take into consideration the people’ will. It was quiet frustrated to see how the last meeting the city major Stranz called for a majority vote to increase taxes or not, about 18 people rise their hands supporting the idea of more taxation and about only 10 were opposed to increased it. After see this notorious difference the city council closed the discussion and they talked for a while between them and since I usually sit close to them I could hear their comments and their final decision was going to be NO TAXES when the majority of popular vote say yes to taxes. So here we encounter this paradox and I ask the citizens of Camelot if they want to keep this unbalance in the city council?
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