Tip of the Iceberg: Newly Adopted Council General Public Comment Restrictions
Today, the City Council adopted rules to limit general public comment in a way that maintains civility and decorum. They also slashed the allowed time per speaker in half, allowing only 1 minute per person. Again, note: this is the general public comment on non-agenda items only, not the comments on specific agenda items.
There are a few others who write about it, and most news outlets will pick it up (or have already).
But consider these names when understanding this story:
Candido Marez
Leonard Shapiro
Jim McQuiston
"Melrose" Larry Green
Sylvia Lynn Hawkins
Hal Netkin
Zuma Dogg
Do a little search, ask a City Councilmember (or staffer), dig a little deeper.
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3 comments:
I'm at city council on a regular basis (and I'm not one of the gadfly whack jobs) but if you think a few annoying people justify a major restriction on public participation in the process, you might be the one who needs to dig a little deeper. This is truly an affront to participatory democracy, enacted exclusively because the 15 lame councilmembers couldn't bear a little discomfort a couple of times a week. Give me a break. I can't wait for someone to sue. Gloria Allred, where are you? Too bad Bill Kuntsler is dead.
I caught Zuma Dogg's performance at one of these CC meetings on TV last week -- he really was on some kinda aggressively irritating Larry Flynt trip and wasting people's time by grandstanding and repeating his same points over and over (and getting in numerous plugs for his radio show). It's not unfair to ask for a little decorum in a process like this -- he's still allowed to argue what he came there to argue. Thanks to free speech, he's got countless other platforms where he can spaz out.
"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."
Everyone knows that democracy/a republic is a boring way to govern, but you've got to let the nuts have their say. What makes a crazy person automatically wrong?
In a Norwalk City Council meeting, I once heard a man spend 10 minutes talking about the garage door opener to his complex and how the Fire Department shuold have the code in case the place caught on fire. It was a trascendent moment I will never forget.
Since they're going to try and speed things in council meetings along - how about getting rid of the flag salute, prayers, certificates of recognition, and all the other ceremonial trappings our lame-ass form of government entails?
And give staffers speech lessons while you're at it! And an electric shock for anyone that says "uhh" more than twice in a 30 second time span. And ....
[Sorry ubrayj02, your time for public comment is up.]
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