Blogger Foreword: In the previous post, I promised to check Dave Pollard's comments about zoning in reference to the September 11 Zoning Commission meeting that prompted Jason at the September 18 trustees meeting (a) to announce that the trustees meeting was not a Bash John session and (b) to proceed to bash Terri Vechery.
My reason for checking is that I cannot keep up with even moderately paced speaking, and I thought Dave's remarks needed to be presented as accurately as possible. Checking my notes against the recording--actually, it's a matter of starting the recording, smoking the pen across the page, and then stopping and re-starting when I fall behind and then repeating until it's all on paper--is very time consuming. I have done it often enough to feel confident that the import of my notes is accurate, even though not verbatim. Dave's remarks on October 2 deserved that attention and detail.
The lurkers on the rogue website claim that my blog is not accurate because it is not complete, so people should watch the video. Yes. You should. You should see what the voters thought would be an improvement over Mark Hall as a trustee, which is what made this fiasco possible by installing two trustees who pay a lot more attention to their "advisers" than to the voters and residents whom they are supposed to be serving. No matter what I tell you about the meetings, you really need to see and hear--visuals and tone tell volumes--what the two junior trustees are doing to the township. And ask yourself who is really being served--never mind the pious remarks.
The rogue website was put up as much as anything to show the then trustees--Vic Grimm and Mark Hall--in as bad a light as possible. A number of meetings were carefully orchestrated so that public comment did exactly that. Now, however, all that is necessary is to show exactly what is going on. The junior trustees don't need any staging to show up in a bad light. They have it nailed, with no coaching. You should watch.
OK. Now to a detailed report of Dave Pollard's remarks about the current state of affairs in zoning as he gave them on October 2.
Dave Pollard, S.R. 82: I want to revisit a few remarks that were made at the last meeting. One was that whenever we try to do something nice, people try to put a stop to it. At the last meeting no one said anything about getting rid of the zoning inspector or zoning--it was about doing things improperly.
The term "unprofessional" was used. I was at that meeting. Mrs. Vechery was not unprofessional in her remarks. She was responding to the unprofessional behavior of your zoning inspector. I did not hear her being rude. She was upset.
I was probably more upset than she was about the attitude your zoning inspector brought to the job. I believe it is inexcusable for a government official in this [Dave's emphasis] country to take that attitude towards the people he supposedly works for.
About the gun and kids climbing on it. They have done that from the beginning, and no one has ever gotten hurt.
That gun is a monument to the men and women who put aside everything from 1941-1945 to make sure that government by fear and intimidation is not the type of government that reigns on the whole planet. But that is the attitude that your zoning inspector has brought in. That is what people are protesting. [Blogger's emphasis--with a deep understanding of how important this point is to Dave.]
To say that he is going by the book is totally out of touch. You've got enough examples in front of you that you should know that. Those are the kinds of things that need to be revisited. It was your zoning inspector's repeated behavior and disregard for the book that started this. If you correct those things, it will reflect well on you. But if you let it go, that is what people will remember.
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.
