Paul’s Rant!

Public Comments (PART TWO)

Last Tuesday night’s meeting of the Raytown Board of Aldermen was pretty much an uneventful meeting. A few housekeeping resolutions and a smattering of appointments to various Boards and Commissions – before you knew it, the meeting was over.

There was one exception. It was the handling of the Public Comments section of the meeting.

Keep in mind, the Board of Aldermen meetings are open to the public. “Public” has been defined as those in attendance who are not city employees or elected officials. The McDonough Administration has limited the number of people from the “public” to “six or seven”.

The reason given is to contain the spread of the Corona Virus.

Temperatures of attendees are taken before the meeting. Masks are required  and social distancing is practiced.

However, Public Comments are not allowed to be given in public. Anyone wishing to comment must do so in writing, at least 30 hours before the meeting. The letter is then scanned by city personnel and projected on the wall for all to read.

At the last meeting there was only one public comment. The Mayor’s opponent in the last City Election, Tony Jacob, sent a 586 word document which could easily be read within the five minute allotted time period.

Here is the odd part. Mr. Jacob was sitting in the audience when the letter was projected on the wall. He could have easily given his public comment personally. He had a mask on. The podium from which he would speak is 12 feet away from the nearest chair (double the space required by the Center for Disease Control guidelines).

The City Attorney, who was also serving as city clerk, scrolled through the letter at a reasonable pace so all who observed could read the letter.

When the reading was completed, the Clerk scrolled back to a certain part of the letter and left the projector on.

At that point, Mayor McDonough responded to some of the comments in Mr. Jacob’s public comment.

OUR VIEW . . .

Public Comments is supposed to be a venue for private citizens to address their elected officials in a public meeting. The rules are simple. Raytown residents only; topics can only cover City of Raytown issues; elected officials are not allowed to debate what is said.

At the last meeting those rules were followed, with one glaring exception.

The Mayor, despite the prohibition on responding to public comments, decided to throw in. It also appears he colluded with the City Clerk to have a portion of Jacob’s comments scrolled back onto the screen when giving the Mayor gave his response.

We fact checked Mr. Jacob’s comments (a link to the letter is provided following this editorial) and found them to be accurate.

The Mayor may not agree with what Mr. Jacob has to say. But the purpose of Public Comments is not to create a forum to appease politicians. Any Raytown resident has a right to make a public comment at a meeting.

The rules as set forth by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen are very clear. Rebuttal during the meeting by the Board of Aldermen and Mayor is not allowed.

At the last meeting, a private citizen’s comments were sent to the city. The contents of the comments by Mr. Jacob were obviously shared with certain elected officials who then crafted a response. The response was given given immediately following the public comment.

There are some very important lessons here: 

• Board meetings should not be a contest of who gets the last word.
• Private citizen’s Public Comments should not be leaked to elected officials before a meeting.
• Most important, elected officials should follow the rules they have crafted for Public Comments.

To view Tony Jacob's comments . . . 

USE THIS LINK . . . Tony Jacob's Comment

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