Mantua Township Trustees Meeting July 5, 2012
The meeting opened with the usual activities--minutes, fiscal officer's report, club and committee reports, etc. Then came New Business.
Jason Carlton: Jason talked about public comment and having removed the time limit but asking that, with freedom of speech, comments be kept brief.
Continuing: I would just like to state that at these last two meetings, I was disappointed. The last meeting, there was an issue at the doorway. I should not have to be telling people to behave like adults.
Jason made a motion to this effect: To suspend public comment at this meeting so that cooler heads can prevail. The Sunshine Laws [Blogger: And Roberts Rules of Order] state that public comment is a privilege, not a necessity.
Jason made the motion, and he and John Festa voted yes. Vic voted no.
Jason: I am also available after the meetings and by phone.
At 7:45, Richard Heil, who lives on Winchell close to Townline Road, and a friend arrived and signed in.
Before the Trustees paused to pay the bills, Jason reiterated the suspension of comment, a number of other people having also come in late.
Mr. Heil was NOT happy with that decision and pressed Jason about it. It was very noisy, so I know I did not get everything, but this is the gist of it:
Mr. Heil said, How do we know when public comment will resume? Ever? I think he reiterated that and asked if it would be reinstated at the next meeting. I believe that Jason said it would be.
To the best of anyone's memory, this is the ONLY time that public comment has ever been suspended for everyone. During Mark Hall's term as a trustee, he rescinded Dawn Pechman's opportunity to speak at a meeting once because she had been very disruptive at the previous meeting.
While Dawn was bringing Aurora resident George Mazzaro to meetings and both of them were harassing Marie and the trustees (well, not Connie Leedom, but certainly Vic and Steve Oros, which resulted in the ruling that only Township residents were permitted to speak in public comment), people were never denied public comment. That, despite the fact that several of us, outraged at Dawn and Mazzaro's behavior, pleaded with Vic to shut them down.
There is a truly shameful meeting--shameful in regard to the behavior of residents bullying Vic and Mark--when they just took it and went on. I suspect that the view of that out in the wilderness without adult supervision was that Vic and Mark were weak. It was painful to watch, and I wish they had cut the bullies (or maybe just the one) off in mid-snarl. However, the attitudes were certainly clear, and Vic has always just wanted to hear what people had to say.
OK, about the time limit, which Jason cancelled when he assumed the chair. The 5-minute time limit was set because of--guess who--Dawn's having gone on at length (as I understand it, almost 45 minutes at one meeting) in meeting after meeting. I didn't see that one, but I was in attendance during a number of them. The Gettysburg Address was only about two minutes long. It's a standard we might all meditate and act upon (she said as she rattled away on the keys at length).
By cancelling the time limit, Jason made himself the arbiter of how long each person gets to speak, and if he doesn't like what's being said, he has been observed to cut off the speaker and just go on. It's nice that he tries ostensibly to appeal to people's better nature and to say that we are all adults. It hasn't worked. The time limit is usually long enough; sometimes, of course, it seems like an hour. But if everyone gets 5 minutes if he or she wants it, we are operating under the rule of law, and not personal whim.
By making himself available after meetings or by phone, Jason also reduces the public's view of a resident holding him--correction: trying to hold him--accountable, and only he hears the remarks. It's a way of subverting open government. And Jason and John Festa have never been subjected to anything like the ugly, hateful abuse that Vic and Mark endured in carrying out their responsibilities.
About This Blog
The purpose of this blog is to give an accurate account of what is said during Public Comment at Mantua Township Trustees meetings.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Principles
Two ideas guide and support me:
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
