Has City Council Lost Control of the Agenda?
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From: Newton White …. [mailto:NWhite0@cfl.rr.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2015 1:25 PM
To: Fenwick, Robin; Harden, David; City Council
Subject: Attorney’s document
Robin,
I hate to burden you for the proposed contract that the city attorney distributed on the dias last night, but please.
It is my feeling that distributing documents such as the finance manager and the attorney did last night put the public and the elected council at a disadvantage. While certainly we can all see and review it the next day by burdening your office and staff with additional work, than if it were published in timely manner with the agenda, as the mangers comments were.
I have urged council in the past to not take or allow discussion on documents unnecessarily distributed during the meeting by staff that were not included in the agenda. Most did campaign saying they wanted a more open and transparent government, it seems to have been forgotten.
Newton White
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Covert document presented to the Council at the last minute by City Attorney
Scroll Window 6 Pages [google-drive-embed url=”https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bznby4cJhHWTb2JKWmQtallyX0U/preview?usp=drivesdk” title=”Sample CM Contract.pdf” icon=”https://ssl.gstatic.com/docs/doclist/images/icon_12_pdf_list.png” width=”100%” height=”900″ style=”embed”]
It has been my suggestion that the contract not be open ended. It should have to be renewed, in off election (odd) years. Some of the applicants we are seeing are unemployed because their contract was not renewed. So it is not an uncommon thing. The intention is to force a true review of direction and performance, and hold the manager to the true direction of council, and citizens. It brings the issue and creates a decision point without the drama of someone having to make a motion to dismiss the manager and bring embarrassing and damaging discussion.
Newton, do you think not giving the documents to the public until after their time to comment is intentional or just another “mistake”?
Most of these I feel are an intentional effort to shield these documents from the public, by making them more difficult to get. Second, it is a way to influence the decision making process by limiting the time council has to consider it, form questions, or comments about it.
The budget for instance is being held tight by the manager and staff and council is actually asking about it. By the time council gets the picture it will be too late to revise it. If any feedback comes on how large of a tax increase will be needed to fund it, staff will offer cuts in police and fire, and loss of vital operations as the dire alternatives to raising taxes. Basically insuring that people will be willing to pay the price rather than risk losing protection or loved programs.
Newton
Newton@newtonwhite.org
Newt; you hit the nail on the head with that comment.
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……….. and the Mayor & Council just sits there like bunch of bumps on a log …
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…………………………………. Can we get a amen on that ???
Thanks for you opinion Newt. It is so diabolical that a city government would pull tricks of timing to advance their goals. It is a “them against us” kind of attitude which makes a mockery of democracy and who city government works for. If city government does not work for the citizens, that leaves catering only to special financial interests. I would suspect that is one of the reasons that Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are making news in their campaign issues of reform. We dont have Sanders and Trump here in Port Orange watching out for citizens’ interests but we have Newton White, Ted Noftall, Dianne and Mike Gardiner, and Mark Schaefer. We also have Pat Nelan the editor of this web site and I would like to think Hank Springer the editor of http://www.popdradiolog.com Good luck to us all. The old boy network is very much alive in Port Orange and will be around even after the team captain, Mayor Green leaves city politics. Actually, I don’t expect that informally he will ever leave politics. I had once “given a lesson” to Green’s son,Lance,as to why he will have a tough job getting elected to the city council.
Newton,
Can you rewrite the message above so I can read it.
Please proof what you write before posting.
Onlooker2 I would like to remind you that people whom live in glass houses should not throw stones. It looks like you asked Newton a question and ended it with a period rather than a question mark. C’mon Man! Are you really insulting his intelligence? Are you smarter than a fifth grader?
No.
You should work on your reading skills. Nobody else is having a problem understanding what I wrote.
I found this link http://www.volusialiteracy.org/
and this one http://www.visionworks.com/
I hope they can help.