Council rejects proposal to stop politicking at the dais
Councilman Chas Kelley was unable on Tuesday to gain any support for his proposal to ban political statements from the dais.
Kelley wanted to put language on the books to prevent council members, other city elected officials and the city manager from making statements from the dais in support or opposition to any political candidate or ballot measure. His proposal would have continued to allow those same officials to hurl their political pitches at the podium reserved for the general public.
City Attorney James F. Penman did just that during Tuesday's City Council meeting when he asked voters to support his candidacy for mayor from behind the public's podium. Mayor Pat Morris, who is seeking reelection, did not stump during Tuesday's meeting.
Kelley maintained that political statements from the dais are a waste of the taxpayers' money.
Councilman Rikke Van Johnson responded that the council should police itself, and Councilman Tobin Brinker said the proposal would be difficult to enforce in practice, as its common for somewhat subtle political messages to sneak into the council's debates on any given issue.
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Andrew Edwards. E-mail Andrew here.
Outstanding work, politicians. I don't think Chas wanted to silence people. I think he would just prefer to stick to the points of things. It was just misguided. Disaster averted. WHEW!
Well, where is Chris Jones now that his butt . . er boy Kelley went down in flames and could not even get a second to his ridiculous motion. Come on Mr. Jones, tell us again how popular your lackey is with his colleagues. I am sure our founding fathers rolled in their graves at Kelley's poor judgement. Did I say that Chas is a Neil Derry clone.
Even though Kelley didn't get the support he wanted, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Mr. Penman make a speech about his candidacy for mayor from the public podium. I was impressed! I am one of those people who will not be voting for Morris this time around. Penman for mayor is the better choice.
I also will not be voting for Baxter. He voted against the urgency ordinance proposed by Mr. Penman to restrict parolee housing in San Bernardino. He makes no sense.
Sally,
I was more interested that your boy Baxter was the only vote on the Council for more parolee housing. Think that will go over well with 2nd Ward voters?
CJ, He ain't my boy. Too bad your carpet-bagging candidate, Jason Desjardins, is operating an illegal business where he had been registered to vote before moving into the 2nd Ward. If you had a decent candidate you might of had a chance. Oh, I almost forgot about Nick Calero who also works for Derry along with Chas Kelley. Given all the scandals in the County, Nick wisely chose to stay out of the race.
I said it once, I will say it again…Keeping the playing field level…what a novel idea. Allowing anyone and everyone an opportunity to speak for a pre-specified amount of time (3 minutes) at a common location (the public podium) is fair and equal. Just because you sit at the dais as an elected you do not deserve nor should you receive special treatment or time to champion your personal cause in running (again) for public office. Why would anyone refute having an equal opportunity to address the public?
I feel the use of defined and followed guidelines by all politicians or wanta-be’s is necessary to ensure equality. Why is or was that so hard to understand? Why should sitting politicians has additional or more time than those who will challenge them in running for public office? It is bad enough that some politicians receive or get more funding than others but time at an official City meeting should be controlled and limited for all who want to speak about non-agenda items (Like running for office or re-election).
Why does evening out the playing field for everyone scare some? Are they that weak and insecure of their past accomplishments from within their Wards? SB will never recover or grow with do-nothing politicians who only follow instead of lead as they were elected to do. Too bad this matter failed as fear must have overcome the voters.