It’s supposed to be boring, remember?
The process of making city government sausage is supposed to be boring. It’s not supposed to be a fast-moving, thrill-a-minute, train wreck that throws accountability and good sense under a partisan bus. (There are more clichès lying around here somewhere and I’ll use them soon. I promise.)
Boring. Boring. Boring.
One shouldn’t have to worry that a group of armed lunatics from out of town will crowd the entrance to the Cedar Park city council chambers to try and intimidate anyone who dares to enter, then dominate the public comments portion of the meeting with … Lord, I’ve watched the video and read Josh Moniz’s report but I cannot, for the life of me, fathom what they were trying to accomplish.
Dorian, Tim … we get it. You boys have a serious man-crush on Alex Jones and his ilk. Alex thrives on confrontation and flings disinformation with reckless abandon (does anyone remember Jade Helm?). Why is it necessary to copy those tactics — and toss in an unhealthy dose of fear and intimidation — into what should be a boring, boring, boring city council meeting?
Oh, I get it. All those middle-aged soccer moms in WilCo Indivisible can be so threatening, what with the bake sales and voter registration drives and all. So, sure … an armed response is absolutely called for.
Then, there’s Leander, with a council so warm and cuddly that any perceived criticism is met with harsh maneuvers intended to silence every iota of disapproval.
Here’s a truth about good government: we should feel confident that our city representatives care enough about our concerns that we will be welcomed to every meeting and assured those concerns are heard, regardless of what those concerns are and who is upset that they are aired … in public.
This threatens you, Troy? Why? You don’t like your elbow jogged by your inferiors? Or is it that you can’t take the heat?
But, no. Mayor Troy Hill and his council minions have quashed public comments and will even flee town to hold strategic planning sessions because, well, the press or the Great Unwashed (which may be the same — have you seen newspaper reporters these days?) want to sit in, take notes and maybe even stream it live, since the city can’t be bothered.
That’s right, if our sources are correct (and they are), the Leander City Council will head to Salado Saturday and Sunday for that body’s annual retreat.
They HAD planned an over night trip to San Antonio for this but, the folks in San Antonio have forbidden indoor gatherings of 10 or more people because … well, there’s this raging pandemic spreading through the South with tragic relentlessness. Surely you’ve heard.
In case you’re one of the Great Unwashed and you’d like to crash the meeting (taking proper pandemic safety measures, of course), we hear it will be held at Salado’s Stagecoach Inn 9-5 on Saturday, then 9-noon on Sunday. It’s a public meeting in a swanky place and you’re paying for it. They’re gonna talk about spending your tax money. If you show up, they have to let you in. (And, if they don’t let you in, please let us know.)
(An aside: to some degree, both the silencing of non-agenda public comment and the out-of-town retreat appear to be at least technically legal but there is a vast difference between what is legal and what it right and proper.)
A few months back (was it only October?), I wrote in this space that city council meetings should be boring. And, they should be.
Perhaps Cedar Park Mayor Corbin van Arsdale can hammer a modicum of civility into his more intransigent colleagues (and we support him in that effort). Maybe the Leander retreat will be so boring, boring, boring that Mayor Hill will snooze through the whole thing.
Good Lord, I hope so.
Because city council meetings should be boring.
Related: Council meetings are supposed to be boring
The Ragged Edge 