Did you know that
Mayor Reagor and City Manager Finley DeGraffenried
tried to silence citizens
You won't believe the arrogance and disdain of citizens that Mayor
Reagor and Finley showed on this one. At a Council Meeting on 3/26/12,
Mayor Reagor lost his temper, again, at a LlanoWatch'er and this time it
made the newspapers. Not wanting to be embarrassed, again, he and Finley
wrote an amendment to the
"Code of Conduct for Elected Officials" and stealthily put out the
following, seemingly innocuous, agenda item the Friday night before the
next Monday Council meeting:
You would think by the agenda title, the title of the document, the
title of the section, and Mayor Reagor's rude, condescending, and
abusive behavior, that the amendment would put controls on the Mayor's
outrageously bad behavior. Not. The first two sections of the
“Code of
Conduct for Elected Officials” deal with how nicely Council members
and staff must treat each other. The new section,
which has nothing to do with the subject of the document,
basically instructs citizens to be silent:
-
Only the mayor can allow a citizen to speak
-
Each citizen may have a maximum of 3-5 minutes to
speak
-
All citizens can only have 20 minutes combined
-
Citizens speaking on the same subject should
designate a spokesperson
-
Citizens can only speak at the start of the meeting
before any agenda items
-
To speak during an agenda item, citizens must submit
a "Citizen Comment Form"
prior to the start of the meeting. Yes, before you have heard anyone
speak.
Does this sound like a Mayor and City Manager that
respect your input - or you? Does this sound like the USA?
Fortunately, LlanoWatchers were watching and sent an
immediate email to Mayor Reagor, City Manager Finley DeGraffenried, and
Council and the agenda item was dropped. We did recommend that the
“Code of Conduct for Elected Officials” be amended with the following,
but we were ignored:
Treat the
citizens as well as you are required to treat each other and staff: With
respect and dignity. Council and staff have been entrusted with the power of
the people and are their servants. Citizens will be allowed to speak when,
and for how long, they please. This is their government. They can and will
have a say.
Oh, and what was the egregious statement by that horrible
citizen that caused the Mayor and Finley to react this way? The
question was a follow-up to staff on their response to a previous Council
request for details on the Building Permit and Certificate of Occupancy for
the Community Center. It was, and is, a serious concern of several citizens
and Council members and a potential liability. The Mayor should have been
the one asking these questions, but this question was not even answered, as
is typical when Mayor Reagor is questioned.