Stop ‘good cop, bad cop’
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Editor,
Why does the Polson City Council seem to believe that playing “good cop, bad cop” with the public is fair and honest? Consider the city impact fees. A couple of meetings ago, one city commissioner stated that all previous mistakes and transgressions based on the current, slightly skewed document, were null and void and no longer debatable during that meeting; we were moving forward.
The city manager then stood up in front of the white board and stated that “we all” were going to come together and fix that particular document by consensus. The council would take that evening’s suggestions, mold the changes into the document, present it again for review by the public, record further changes, mold them into it again, and do this as many times as necessary to end up with an acceptable, legal document – minus all the current loopholes and irregularities.
That Kumbaya session with suggestions and refinements, and consensus ensued. Two council meetings later, the result was presented by the city attorney at the end of a very lengthy council meeting as the first reading (of two readings) and was ratified as such by the council, with one “nay” (after citizens asked for nothing more than to slow down) – meaning that by procedure, it will get some minor changes (that came principally from the commissioners and not the public) and get its second of two readings with limited public review three weeks later and be a slam dunk.
I’m sorry, but how does this action align with the previous explanation of the process by the city manager? I dare someone to find the truth in this: political promises vs. delivered actions. Who’s the victim? What happened to, “We’ll do this as many times as necessary to end up with a good document we can move forward with?” I believe someone needs to check the recorded minutes (not the transcribed version) of the first meeting to confirm exactly what the duped public was promised by the city manager, and then compare that to the procedure the city council delivered to us in the “one, two, we’re done,” game.
Michael Gale
Ronan
