Board of Aldermen 10-13-2020 Page 18
The other thing | am really concerned about is the use of a light is great | think that’s awesome. | think
Alderwoman Kelly raised the issue of what we think is civil and what rude or profane remarks would be
prohibited. | have found President Wilshire very condemning on remarks that | have made that | feel were
unworthy. And just at the last meeting on the 22™, | addressed comments directly made by the Mayor in
his opening statement and she shut me off, she said, please stop directing your comments to the Mayor.
Well the Mayor opened up the discussion by speaking about two residents, one in particular, who had
placed all this hardship on the City with Right to Know Requests and opened up a discussion on the law
suit as a plaintiff that she had filed on the City. He made a lot of statements about these Right to Know
Requests that | happen to think weren't right.
| feel the door is open for the public to come back and comment on that. And to have Ms. Wilshire jump in
and say, don’t comment on the Mayor. That’s democracy and that’s a healthy debate that is happening
there. And it has happened to me repeatedly with this Board. You know, also this concept that language on
civil, rude, profane remarks was all put in by the Legal Office. | think that’s a big mistake. The Legal Office
is making Public Comment very restrictive in the City and this Ordinance is really tightening the screws
down over a period of four or five years that Mayor Donchess has been in office and | think it’s going
completely in the wrong way. And this latitude that you give to the President of the Board to shut people
down if she doesn’t like the comments. God knows it is happening to me. | have to fight for my time. |
don’t want to have to challenge this in Court, really, I've got enough on my plate. I’d like you to just let these
comments be opened up.
The concept that we don’t like — Alderman Lopez’s comments were disturbing to me. He wants everything
tucked in nice and neat and all pretty and everyone using good words and everything, you know, a
niceness policy works well for him. | think he’s out of touch. This concept that you can’t criticize individuals
is unconstitutional. And this concept that we should only be the public coming to the Board to discuss
matters that the Board covers, | don’t know what you cover. | had personnel issues. | went to the
Personnel Committee Meeting, they said, hey we don’t cover that. | went to the Human Resource guy, he
says, hey | don’t cover that. | come to the Aldermen you are upset because you don’t want it covered there.
| don’t Know where you cover this stuff and | really don’t give a crap. If | want to discuss it and | have
something to say about a personnel matter, | am going to come most likely to the Board to say it. Because
| am concerned; look at the stuff that | dug up. You’ve got 12 more sanctions that were brought down by
the DRA last week. At some point you should stop saying, it’s her; maybe there was something legitimate |
was talking about.
| also think Fred Teeboom made a very valid point. Start taking that light that’s going to be on the wall and
start using that on yourselves some of the time. Because there’s a lot of extraneous communication going
on at that table that could make these meetings a lot shorter. So | think you should bring this Ordinance
back into the Committee and think long and hard about Legal’s recommendation for some of the language
in here. They are not doing this City a favor when it comes to transparency and openness of Government.
Thank you.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to give public comment. Seeing none, Communication Requiring
Final Approval.
COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING FINAL APPROVAL - None
PETITIONS - None
NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND ELECTIONS
Appointments by the Mayor
The following Appointments by the Mayor were read into the record:
