Is the public invited to address the IBA and PCAA Work Session Meetings ?

[surepip]

As posted by Concerned Paulding Resident:

 

"

 

 

 

 

" refuse to allow citizens to question the scheme in the PCAA meeting "

 

They have told your group REPEATADLY that the PCAA monthly Board Meetings are just that...WORKING sessions for the Board to meet and make the decisions they are supposed to be making. These meeting are NOT designed or set up (in spite of ya'll telling every media outlet that will listen) to be Q & A sessions for public input! How hard is that to understand! "

 

So I am calling you out CPR.....

 

Can you inform me, and your posse, just how WellStar came to acquire the additonal 40+ acres of land, next to the 33 acres they already owned at the corner of 278 & 120/Bill Carruth in March of 2006 ?

[gpatt0n]

Surepip:

 

I will only say that the ability of members of the public to speak at meetings is at the discretion of the chair.

 

When you come as a protest group with signs like the one on jet fuel in your well (which appears to most a ridiculous, if not absurd charge) the idea is your actions have already spoken and adding sound waves to the already bad vibes is and likely would be superfluous.

 

Indeed, if you are a student of communications, your presence spoke loudly.

 

I would have thought the board a bunch of masochists had they let you address them formally.

 

Indeed, the efforts to address the board was perceived by me as an attempt by your group to bully them into submission - i.e. letting you speak. I'm actually proud they said no and meant it.

 

That there was a letter from the boards attorney saying there was no policy is the fact. All he suggested is that if there was a letter before hand asking for time to address the board, the chairman could grant it. He could. It is still up to his sole discretion to grant it and they didn't. Why? Because they weren't going to be bullied into letting the nimby's speak any more than they were going to be bullied into backing out of the airport deal.

 

Good for them.

 

It is equally obvious in the case of the IBA and the Wellstar hospital campus that you referenced, while certain entities on the IBA board at the time (they are no longer there) were seeking to hide the potential availability of the 40 acres near the new hospital because they favored a project in north Paulding, others on the board were very interested.

 

Those were totally different situations and that is why the chairman of the authority has the discretion. It would appear that the chairs in these instances, each used their discretion wisely.

 

pubby

[tundra]

Funny, I think the citizens are the ones that are feeling bullied.

[gpatt0n]

Tundra:

 

I understand, but when you realize that your presence at a meeting puts you in the gallery where you are free to observe. For instance, do you think your presence in the gallery at the Legislature would give you the right to interrupt the proceedings? How about in open court? Do you have the right to jump up and demand to be heard by the judge in the middle of a murder trial?

 

If you're looking for an example in history when the 'mob' took the floor, one of the most notable was in Paris in 1789 when they did take the floor in the court of Louis XVI. When they did, they also busted out all the people that court had put in prison. It was needed then but on the day in question, you weren't bullied and, despite the intimidation of a large, not terribly happy crowd, they weren't intimidated.

 

I'm personally glad the meeting was conducted with a minimum of interruptions and I do appreciate the nimbys there, including you, were as well behaved as you were as any silliness would have made the six-o'clock news.

 

While there were outbursts, they were respectful and were handled respectfully.

 

But anytime a public board or commission is faced with an angry crowd, concerns of the public peace are raised.

 

pubby