We've already read I Heart's great summary of the confusing and contradictory views of our Councilmembers regarding videos at Council meetings, but this reader puts the issue into perspective:
You see this pattern time and again on the City Council. They're constantly worried about how late the meetings will go, or whether the process will be smooth and efficient. It's why they fretted over where to place the public comment period, and why McLean was worried last month that she'd be ambushed during a Council meeting.
Well as the reader points out, guess what? Democracy isn't smooth and efficient In fact it's almost the exact opposite of that. It's messy, slow, riddled with starts and stops and checks and balances. It's not designed to be efficient; it's designed to be representative. It's not designed like a business where power is in the hands of a single executive. It's a government, and power is meant to be fractured & shared among different stakeholders.
So yeah, sometimes our representatives will get ambushed. And sometimes meetings will go late and decisions will be delayed. If you ask me, we could use a little more of delay and slow consideration given how many mistakes the Council and Staff have made. If we had gone a little slower and been a little more careful, maybe we could have avoided this two-tier compensation boondoggle that's been on the agenda for sixty days. It's not TimBen Boydston's fault that this became a problem.
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TimBen's videos & Free speech
For the first time ever, I turned my computer over to SCVTV and watched the Santa Clarita City Council meeting on Tuesday. Luckily I logged on just in time to catch the discussion on showing the videos created by other council members.
The whole thing is very shocking for me to see (maybe it shouldn't be). What I saw was basically some members of the council make every attempt to stifle the first amendment rights of a fellow council member because the message that they might present would be "piecemealed" or "contrived." I hate to tell our fine councilmembers, but, who cares? It could be a hack. It could be 5 minutes of rambling nonsense. I could be 5 minutes of Looney Tunes cartoons. It does not matter. The first amendment guarantees that everyone has a right to say what they want to say, even when it may be contrary to their own best interests.
The council does have the right to limit the length, and I support that, and I would also even support them requiring it to be entered into the record as part of the public comment periods. Where they've crossed a line, and in my layperson's opinon opened themselves up to a legal challenge, is in requiring that videos be submitted ahead of time to be vetted.
Our city council needs to stop acting like a group of children, and start acting like the leaders that Santa Clarita needs.
You see this pattern time and again on the City Council. They're constantly worried about how late the meetings will go, or whether the process will be smooth and efficient. It's why they fretted over where to place the public comment period, and why McLean was worried last month that she'd be ambushed during a Council meeting.
Well as the reader points out, guess what? Democracy isn't smooth and efficient In fact it's almost the exact opposite of that. It's messy, slow, riddled with starts and stops and checks and balances. It's not designed to be efficient; it's designed to be representative. It's not designed like a business where power is in the hands of a single executive. It's a government, and power is meant to be fractured & shared among different stakeholders.
So yeah, sometimes our representatives will get ambushed. And sometimes meetings will go late and decisions will be delayed. If you ask me, we could use a little more of delay and slow consideration given how many mistakes the Council and Staff have made. If we had gone a little slower and been a little more careful, maybe we could have avoided this two-tier compensation boondoggle that's been on the agenda for sixty days. It's not TimBen Boydston's fault that this became a problem.
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