Shoulder shrugging unacceptable

The citizens of Washington were cheated last night as the monthly City Council meeting was called to order, tourism, Chamber, PDA, and police reports were read and Debbie Danner requested two actions from the Council. Normally, at this time, the mayor would ask each council representative to address the council with their constituent's concerns and then the city attorney would speak and that would be followed by the advice and concerns of the city administrator. Last night's meeting did not follow the normal procedures, however. After Debbie Danner gave her report, and to my surprise and amazement, the mayor quickly said "this meeting is adjourned," and then walked away from the table.

I have been attending City Council meetings for 10 years and this unethical behavior was a shock to myself and everyone else in the room. Later, upon confronting the mayor, I was told that from now on the City Council members would hold "work-ready" meetings on either Wednesdays or later in the conversation he said maybe even Thursdays at around 4:00 or 4:30 in the afternoons.

Another citizen spoke up and said that most people could not attend meetings at that time because they were working and the mayor just shrugged his shoulder.

When asked why he was changing procedure, the mayor replied that his City Council representatives were bringing up topics at the Monday evening meetings that he did not wish them to talk about in public and that from now on he would only put things on the agenda that he approved. A woman there said that actions such as these could be interpreted as a mistrust of the Council and a deliberate withholding of information from the general public and, once again, the mayor shrugged his shoulder.

It seemed to me that the City Council representatives were as surprised at how the meeting went as we were sitting in the audience. I urge every citizen of Washington to get involved, make a phone call, and findout what is really going on in our City government and what can be done about it.
Jim Davidson
a concerned citizen

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