Darla McCorkle/Columnist
Next time I go to a council meeting I’m gonna take a friend or two so I can text them. I’ll be sure to set my phone to make click clack typewriter noises and the screen size so big Helen Keller could read it. And for good measure I’ll text the spouse of a council member at the other end of the room who also has their phone volume turned all the way up.
Everyone thought I was stink eyeing the mayor, but it was a Councilwoman’s husband I was looking at with disdain. Grinning at his phone when it chimed like his school crush just texted, as he believed the exchange was oh so stealthy. I may be blind and deaf and can’t keep a secret, but at least when I talk crap in a text the person I can’t stand can’t read it from four seats away.
Of course, like at all meetings these days, old dude was given the floor to say his lines of, “I pay my taxes” and the “if people would pay what they owe.” Yes yes I know. We all know. Second verse same as the first.
I am Henry the Eighth I am, Henry the Eighth I am I am,
This is what? The 100th replay? Forgive me if I don’t even realize we’ve gotten to that part of the rerun until you start singing it backwards.
Seriously, does anyone else ever have the thought about the fourth time he hits the podium, “Who are you to dictate to me or anyone else anything of importance?”
I may be the minority, but if you want to know why he is on the agenda like he has valuable information to share I urge you to call Bubba Haggard and call our mayor.
This has gone on long enough. He serves no purpose and each time he speaks he either implies something that isn’t true, flat-out states something that is a lie, or he gives wrong information. This man is not a representative or an expert in anything. He is just a citizen. Just like you. Despite his delusions of grandeur, he is not special. If council wishes to continue down this road with this precedent, then ask to be placed on the agenda. In fact, let’s all sign-up! Any citizen that wishes to speak beyond public comment can request to be placed on the agenda! We’ll have public liaisons for each person at the table that way EVERYONE gets to speak ad nauseam on whatever they wish for as long as they wish.
And you can tell the mayor or the person across the table or the people in the audience that you have the floor and not to interrupt you and be as hostile and arrogant as you want to be because being on the agenda means you are the most special boy or girl in the room and can do whatever you want.
See how utterly ridiculous that sounds?
That’s what your city government has made meetings into. All so a man can say for the 101st time, “Hugh hasn’t paid his taxes.” Only it takes him 30 minutes to first insult everyone at the table, every department, then swear he likes all of them, until finally he gets to the point to say what he wants to about Hugh or whomever he is targeting that week.
“Four hours later” the meeting will finally be over.
No one voted for him to be a representative. No one appointed him to a board or committee. No one has declared him an expert. In fact, he gets a lot of stuff wrong. I’ve seen him use the wrong dollar amounts. He got what the city can tell the county to do wrong. He had to be told what hotel tax can and can’t be used for. He still stood up and either lied purposefully or just can’t get things right when he speaks publicly.
But seriously. All jokes aside.
Getting so much wrong or implying so much misinformation every time he is at the podium is harming the city. It is harmful to imply the city can do things it can’t. It is harmful to allow his opinion to be viewed as fact. Look, I know dramas are fun to watch. But this isn’t television. This is a government meeting meant to keep the public informed. His inability to get things right, and council allowing his opinion to be stated as fact, is harming the public.
For example, he stated he had photos of officers parked at Chili’s in Marshall. He was implying an officer was on company time not doing their job. We all caught the implication, yes?
That’s harmful! All he did was imply something without any facts to support it.
He didn’t supply a date. He didn’t supply a time. He didn’t supply a car number.
And not one council member asked Perez about it.
It is harmful to imply Jefferson PD officers are joy riding in patrol cars or breaking rules when you don’t know that. Given how hard it is to get officers to work for so little pay, how about y’all not let someone imply wrongdoing without proof.
He doesn’t run the police department, Perez does. I don’t know the rules and regs, but I suspect eating while on your shift is okay. We may pay crappy salaries for a risky job without a partner, maybe no backup, spotty dispatch, with busy body citizens monitoring your lunch break implying you’re not doing your job good enough, but hopefully we let you answer a text asking you to pick up milk on the way home.
Council has made it normal for a man to spew wrong or misleading information as part of the agenda. It needs to stop.
He isn’t knowledgeable. He is opinionated.
And usually, those opinions are based in error.
For God’s sake he read the wrong budget line item amount and council was so tuned out that no one corrected it!!
Freedoms come with responsibilities. His free speech should not be allowed to hinder my ability to attend a city council meeting and get correct and accurate information.
And more importantly, his right to free speech does not give him the right to make me feel like a public government meeting is actually his personal place to behave in a hostile or threatening manner. No matter how entertaining some people find it
It’s almost like the transparency Texas requires of its government has been replaced with a willful neglect to allow a citizen to act as an agent of council and have said agent intentionally misrepresent, misinform and cause confusion thus allowing the chaos created to prevent the public from having a clear understanding of council’s actions and intentions.
It’s hard to determine what is going on at meetings that are being held hostage by a nobody. Especially as those in charge just watch and fail to correct him.
It’s almost like council wants the people to be uninformed or misled, huh?
Don’t fall for it. Force opinions to remain in public comment or open the agenda for every citizen to be placed on it.