There Is No One So Blind As He Who Will Not See
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In reply to There Is No One So Blind As He Who Will Not See.
By: Long Term Port Orange Citizen Taxpayer @ 2016/02/04 at 8:17 pm
Hopefully the city council will be vigilant and shut this back door scam down like they recently shut down the city manager’s attempt to eliminate citizen participation during the council meetings.
Bravo for the mayor and the council shutting that kind of assault on open and transparent governance down. It is amazing that a person that has spent most of his life in the military having such abject disrespect for the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.
First it is shutting down the read file, then it is delaying the responding to FOI’s. After that it is facilitating back door meetings with council members and consulting engineers. Then it is establishing the power to piggyback on contracts with unlimited dollar amounts. Next it is attempting to shut down meaningful citizen participation at council meetings in order to silence his critics and any prominent civic minded citizen that exposes the folley of his management team and dynasty building.
All this to set up a back door deal with engineering consultants that could amount to millions while circumventing competitive bidding.
All I can say is I am definitely voting for Ted Noftall as our next mayor because I believe that this will be the only way this shit will be shut down. This is why the city manager attempted to shut down citizen participation because he does not want the public to see how much integrity Mr. Noftall has in exposing this folly.
The city manager also vilifies the blog, which is very revealing because this forum is the voice of our elected officials constituency and is utilized not only by most of the diligently active civil minded citizen stakeholders of this community but also by many of our elected officials.
It is abundantly clear that this new city manager has zero respect for the elected officials, their constituency or the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.
First Amendment rights and open government are essential to democracy
Defending the U.S. Constitution is popular these days, when it centers on gun rights, states’ rights or search and seizure protections.
As we guard the principles of our nation’s founders, let’s not overlook the all-important First Amendment of the Constitution and its guarantee of free speech and free press, which, along with public access to government information, are crucial to our democracy.
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives,” warned James Madison, the main architect of the Constitution. He wrote that the spread of knowledge is “the only guardian of true liberty.”
Today, Americans clamor for government information amid such explosive incidents as the Michael Brown shooting and protests in Ferguson, Mo., and in calmer settings every day at county courthouses, school board meetings and city budget hearings.
Imagine attending a public meeting about the hiring of a new police chief. Suddenly, city council members go into a closed-door session, and you wonder whether they can legally meet in private. Or, perhaps you’ve requested records from your school district about its classroom curriculum and you’re told you can have those documents – but it will cost you hundreds of dollars.
The battle for open government and freedom of speech began in our nation during “days of difficulty and danger,” as George Washington wrote of the American Revolution. Some of today’s public records and public meetings skirmishes may seem minor in comparison, but the founders felt that an informed citizenry is essential to the future of the United States.
That fight does not end. Never give in to tyranny and opaqueness. Fight for transparency and the first amendment to the end. Expose those in authority that strategically shut down transparency and open governance in favor of strategic communication for they are enemies of the first amendment.