From: Larry
To: City Council
Cc:
Subject: Press policy
Date: Friday, February 28, 2025 12:52:34 PM
Hi,
Because of my handicap I am unable to attend the council meeting on March 4, though I do attend most of those meetings via Zoom.
I am writing to let you know how shocked I was to read Laura Hagar Rush’s piece “Why is the city of Sebastopol making it harder for reporters to cover city government?"in the February 28 Sebastopol Times. If her piece is accurate (which I don’t doubt), then it is of great concern to me.
I'd like to state that I really appreciate the new efficiency with which Mayor Zollman runs the city Council meetings.
I know that the council and the public really appreciate how effective he is. However, the logic expressed by Mayor Zollman in the Times article is much less appealing. It may be a stretch, but it reeks of the initial steps King Trump took at the beginning of his second term. I'm sure that the new policy is an attempt to ensure that comments to the public truly represent the views of the city. However, as Laura pointed out in her piece, its effect is to severely limit the TIMELY reporting of news and information about our city to our residents. In this era of instant communication, days or weeks to respond with information just isn't adequate.
At the very least, a clearer, more convincing explanation of the reasoning behind this new policy needs to be circulated to the public. I’m sure that with all the restrictions that the federal government is currently making on our country, you can understand why this is such a hot-button issue to us at this time.
Thank you for all that you do,
Larry Needleman