Just a brief note on Tuesday’s city council meeting.

It’s hard to believe that our council majority (Patti, Gayle, Jamey, and Brian) can be so blatantly disingenuous, especially while being taped for TV. I just had to leave when these folks began to discuss the Grad Night Live location issue. It was like listening to maliciously mischievous children.

In short, this issue was created by a woman who had no standing to complain about what was then a fenced-in storage area by the bike path reserved for Grad Night Live.

The city has never owned the small property in question. The two businesses that did own the space had both permitted Grad Night to use it. There was ample room for a fire truck to access the packinghouse property in time of emergency. As a matter of fact, the closest fire hydrant to the packinghouse is located on the packinghouse property, across the tracks. The city ordered Grad Night to remove the existing containers, which was done at a financial loss. The city is now pretending to graciously replace those containers and permit Grad Night to remain in the same location. What a farce!

Instead of ignoring the complainant’s threats (and cheap race card remarks) and telling her to get out because she had no standing to complain, the council began to cower and respond. This response has taken-up hundreds of city hours, including three or four council agendas, gotten everyone angry to the point of threatening lawsuits, and engaging our city legal counsel. What has been the result? We are now back at square one, i.e. Grad Night retains the use of the property. What a waste!

To make matters worse, I had to listen to council-jammers Gayle, Brian, and Jamey prattle about how much the council has done to help Grad Night, and other non-profit organizations. Let’s get this straight you Katzenjammers. You are not the solution – you are the problem. You tried to cater to that trouble making woman who didn’t have enough common sense to know she had no standing to complain about the non-existing problem.
These three amigos (Brooks, Washburn, and Sipes) lied by denying the fact that they had promised Grad Night to replace the two containers they forced Grad Night to remove. This promise is (thankfully) caught on tape and will be posted to fillmoregazette.com. Here we have liars backing-up liars.

Be thinking about a recall.

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Another example of devious dealings with the new council majority and its incompetent new manager, Yvonne Quiring, relates to the baseball backstop that will not be constructed for this year’s activity at our new Two Rivers Park.

Only one backstop was funded by the council majority. Quiring insisted that the state might come for the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) money, and we, therefore, couldn't afford to build the second backstop and other amenities.

The truth of the matter is that (now) former Director of Public Works, Bert Rapp, had carefully explained to the manager and council, just before resigning, that other money was available to complete this work. There is no legitimate reason for failing to fund both baseball park backstops.

There is also no reason for Jamey Brooks and Brian Sipes to push the council to replace Diane McCall on the Planning Commission. Since Diane has been a standout member of that commission for several years, this had to relate somehow to a personal issue (?). These two council members are the most inexperienced of the four Katzenjammers. The newly acquired feeling of power must have overcome these two pipsqueaks. In this case the Katzenjammers just continue with their program of sweeping away all opposition and eliminating the experienced old guard.

Again, $30,000 for a recall election is peanuts compared to the economic and personnel damage the Katzenjammers are causing the city.

Be thinking about a recall – it’s the right thing to do.

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A postscript: The extension hiring of Linda Pappas Diaz was buried in the Warrant List at Tuesday’s meeting. No discussion, no open government.