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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Live Blog Wednesday: Tranparency In Government

Firelands 411 will be hosting a liveblog session on Wednesday night. We'll go live at 8:00 pm and close the chat at 9:00 - depending on level of activity. Maybe we'll extend it if good discussion is generated. If tomorrow's chat is successful, I'll place polls on this site for readers to choose which topic to cover on the next chat. We'd like to do live blogging at least once a week. The topic can be chosen by the previous week's poll.

On Wednesday, March 11, 2009 we will be discussing the issue that seems to be on everyone's mind: Transparency in city government. We'll discuss whether the level of transparency in Sandusky is a problem and if so what can be done about it.

Hope to see you then!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

love this idea-i will be there!

Bryan said...

Excellent.

Bryan said...

I recieved 4 phone calls about it, so I think we'll have a good turnout.

Anonymous said...

I think this is a very good idea and will hopefully lead to good discussions and answers as to what the citizens can do to right this ship. We know we cannot rely on our elected officials to do it. They are the ones that got us here.

Anonymous said...

Excellent dialogue and topic to get going on. After Monday's city commission meeting, I am throughly disgusted with the shut down of information from the commission. The "no comments" are getting out of hand and so are the executive sessions meetings behind closed doors. The people are asking for accountability and getting the door shut in their face. It is like you elected us and from here on out, you don't need to question us as to what we are doing in your best interest. If you don't like it, vote us out next time. Only trouble with that is that they run an even amount of people for an even amount of seats where you have no choice. Sthal needs to stuff his timer where the sun doesn't shine. He is not being fair with the timer. It is like Kaman said, these people are our bosses and the commission has lost all sight of who they are supposed to be serving.

Anonymous said...

Stahl does not realize that the term "the city" means its citizens, not the citizens' elected representation and charter officers. By saying that "the city" does not have a comment on the financial situation surrounding the nuesse (dare i say) investment, he is portraying to the public that he runs the show and the citizens (the city) do not have a right to know how they are handleing citizens tax dollars....it is quite sad!

Anonymous said...

Spinning Said: After watching the last commission meeting it is clear that Stahl often makes remarks that begin with "I" and then makes a declaration of what will be done and how. As the ex-offico mayor, he acts like he has been elected to run the city when he only has the authority run the commission meeting. It takes a majority vote to provide direction!

Stahl also appears to bully the other commissioners to make comments and decisions that agree with his point of view. He appears to be pulling the strings of those weaker members of the commission to line up votes BEFORE the meeting based on the way the weaker commissioners have to clarify any changes in their votes before the public, which leads to Stahls long winded efforts to change the minds of the weaker commissioners. That was clear when Wadingtom and Brown switched sides on the budget and those commissioners lost their credibility and looked lame after taking a stand on the budget only to back down like wimps before Stahl.

Let's understand that Stahl has picked up some bad habits from the former ex-mayor who was so slick as a lawyer that he naturally created much of the animosity between the taxpayers and the commission that has now grown under Stahl.

Wadington should have been the leader of the city commission this year but he wimped out and stepped aside for Stahl. Now we see the consequences when good people allow bad things to happen.

The only way we will see any improvement is when more commissioners begin to side with Kaman and truly represent ALL citizens and taxpayers.