From: Laurie alderman
Sent: Friday, January 6, 2023 3:52 AM
To: Kevin Patterson <[email protected]>
Cc: George Barich ; Susan Harvey <[email protected]>; Ben Ford <[email protected]>; Laura Sparks <[email protected]>; Sylvia Lemus <[email protected]>; Kay Rivers <[email protected]>; John Bakker <[email protected]>; Damien O'Bid <[email protected]>; David Rabbitt <[email protected]>; Noah Housh <[email protected]>; Craig Scott <[email protected]>; Michael Parish <[email protected]>
Subject: January 10th comment for Citizen's business.
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I do have high hopes for the new make-up of the council for 2023 with diversity on the council, but I am concerned about what has been allowed to happen the last few meetings. I am writing this instead of attending, because I had enough guts to attend an in-person meeting after 2 1/2 years to be fully disrespected in the least. Not one of the seated council respected me or acted with civility towards what happened. I won't be returning to the council chambers in person again until there is respect and civility shown to the citizens and opposing voices.
I only went to the Dec. 13th council meeting to bring up that my written comments were suppressed in the November meeting by you all, so I felt I needed to go in person to have my public input considered. Those are the facts--you all suppressed my written comments that I also emailed seated council members with, the council members did not discuss them at all, and then covered up your actions by putting them in the web agenda 24 hours later. All you seated council members allowed this to happen, despite knowing we are the citizens in federal court regarding suppressing free speech, equal protection, and the ADA.
First, our public input was singled out once again and mocked. How many times are you all going to allow unequal treatment of citizens? Then there is all the markings on the floor corralling us in because of "building codes". Basically also, putting a blue light for disabled in the council chambers with the new set up. You all might not realize that I was denied for over a year by Damien to even get an appointment to see the new council chamber set up and to see if it affected my disability needs. Then at the first meeting I attend in person in over 2 1/2 years, I was told where my ADA adjustable chair had to be. This is while it was known to the City that an ongoing in person ADA accommodation is an adjustable chair. Plus, I asked city staff for an adjustable chair for my regular seating in the audience. I was denied a chair in my spot. . This has happened more than a couple of times in the past, where I am told where I can sit when I was sitting in an appropriate area.. It is disrespectful to repeatedly tell me where I am allowed to sit. These childish games need to end by city staff with things like the room set-up. .
Then, there is what happened about my raising my hand for 15 minutes, trying not to disrupt the meeting. In the least, it was uncivil and disrespectful what happened. Not one of you on the seated council took the time, maybe a minute, to see why my hand was raised. Any one of you could have called a point of order. Then suddenly, I was insulted by the mayor, telling me to put down my hand and then telling me when I could speak. I asked from the audience, if I could make a point of order. I was denied from my audience seat. So I went up to the podium to ask the city attorney if that is true that I don't have a right to make a point of order. Instead of giving legal advice, his job, he ruled me as disruptive. That was not his place to do.
It turns out that I didn't have a right to make a point of order under the city council rules. The mayor did not know the rule either as he stated at public comment time that it is now time to make point of orders by the public. The city council rules only allow council members to make points of order....I do not have every council rule memorized, that is for sure. If the city attorney had actually given correct legal advice, that it was against city council rules for a citizen to make a point of order, I would have accepted that and sat down. This would have taken less than a minute away from the business flow of the meeting. Instead I had my microphone cut, and I was shouted down. This is not the first time this has happened. And it is not the first time a city attorney has been wrong in dealing with public input issues in the council chambers. Then the mayor spoke 7 minutes non-stop like nothing had happened.
I just couldn't believe not one of any of the seated members did anything to help me or intervened in any way. Plus, this probably the 100th time in the council chambers I have been treated disrespectfully and uncivilly. I left the meeting in tears.
Then, to add insult, the mayor was again given free reign to degrade George's later public comment and my actions, with no intervention by any of you. Yes, George and I missed that the agenda had been changed. If you look at the video, it was right before citizens comment, and we were gearing up for citizens business and speaking about what happened in the November meeting.
You all expect civility and respect unconditionally because of your titles. Yet, I have not seen one bit of civility or respect for years towards the citizens who voice any opposition. The unequal treatment is obvious to many in this community. You all are all responsible for the empty audience chairs at the meetings not us citizens. People have watched for years now, how citizens are treated by the council and staff.....you have driven away public input. You can make a commitment to improving the situation, or keep your unethical, uncivil, and disrespectful status quo. It's all up to you. Meanwhile, I won't be gracing the council chambers until I see respect and civility towards the citizens of this city.
P.S. FYI, I did a public records act request for Chief Parish's bodycam video to see if he had footage of my holding up my hand for 15 minutes. It came back that the City does not possess bodycam video. This was so disrespectful to George Barich. The exchange between the chief and mayor over this was unprofessional. You all should review the video. All George asked from the audience is whether the bodycam was on. It turned out it wasn't on, didn't it? George did not deserve to be treated this way because of just wanting to make a public comment before you all.
Sincerely,
Laurie Alderman
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