By a vote of 3-2, councilmembers MaClean, Kelley and Ury vote NO on an item placed on the Agenda by our city attorney that now shuts off direct public participation on Consent Calendar items. While we have documented that for the first quarter of 2007, consisting of six council meetings, the public pulled six items for discussion averaging a whopping seven minutes per meeting.
By a vote of three to two, a Motion to reject this item by John Paul Ledesma was defeated. Remember the names MaClean, Kelley and Ury as you think of proponents of “open government?”
Prior to casting her vote, on the second Motion made by Frank Ury and seconded by Lance MaClean, Mayor Reavis stated that she supported councilman Ledesma’s opposition to this action and went on to say that “we are here to listen” to the public..”we all make campaign promises.”
The members of the majority said that the public can approach one of the five to request an item be pulled for further discussion. What if the councilmember refuses to comply? So we now have to kiss their rings for permission to speak. Oh, but you can always raise your issues at the Public Comment phase when there is no staff report to question. As you only have a three minute opportunity to address the council during the public comment this also allows them to limit your speaking time to three minutes for any non agendized concerns and the Consent Calendar. It’s but another way to close the door of the debate.
Member Ury’s comment that “there is no shortage of public agenda” referring to the data available on line was demeaning. We want to face our elected officials and see their response, not read about items on our computers.
The irony of this new “efficiency of operation,” to save time when we spoke for 40 minutes on Consent Calendar items in the first quarter, is that they devoted over two hours and 42 minutes in their closing council commentary.
April 16, 2007 was a sad day for Mission Viejo’s watchdogs!
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