Commentary on Duncanville City Council meeting - 3/3/09

by Mari Vega

To have witnessed it is hard to believe. It was after a long absence from attending such meetings but on this day, I learned a bit more of the backstory, just for having attended the briefing (open to the public) beforehand.

You may or may not already know that election season is in effect, and that may be at the root of the unrest, but have you ever witnessed a leader fall down on the job?

I did, on Thursday, March 3rd, and I saw others fall in along behind him. Mayor David Green lost his top two, or was it three, times?

The reason? Councilmember Paul Ford objected to the misstated minutes recorded of his comments at the last meeting. It should matter to you, dear reader, that what was printed was substantially different (Opposite) of what he had said. He raised the point and submitted his replacement text before the minutes were to be voted on for approval. But Mayor Green, and Mr. Grady Smithey, and Ms. Dorothy Burton, would not concede the error. It simply could have been a clerical error and nothing more would have been thought of it. But those persons, and Mr. Ken Weaver and Mr. Scott Cannon, who remained silent, revealed that they cannot see a fact for a fact and are instead, too engaged in politics of the bullying majority to let the minutes record what was what.

Johnette Jameson did clearly point out that Mr. Ford's submitted replacement was no longer, and "whether you agree with it or not", he was simply asking for a more correct record of what he had said to be included in the Official Minutes.

Minutes are to record into history what took place at a meeting. It is not a place to editorialize or play around with words. Apparently, this Council has debated before about the "style of minutes" taken, whether they be 'Action' or 'Verbatim' and it was voted that they be 'Action' minutes--which I guess is just a summary kind of note-taking versus the word for word. But shouldn't that more casual style of note-taking still be accurate?

Mr. Smithey's arguments were that this Council takes Action minutes and besides, he objected to what Mr. Ford had stated at the meeting anyway, but he completely misses the point. In personal conversation, he told me that the word 'notion' is just a synonym for the word 'idea'. If that is so, then 'democracy' is just another word for 'government'.

C'mon out to the next Duncanville City Council meeting. While there may not always be explosions, it's sure better than anything they got on TV. And to follow this storyline, you gotta see it in person. [The video of the March 3rd, 2009 meeting has not yet been posted but, man, it'll be a keeper!]

This article was submitted by a member of the Pegasus News community.