If Supervisor David Brown was Pinocchio they would be harvesting his nose on a tree farm by now. Read The Daily Local. It’s twaddliscious. Remember his OWN campaign words???? (see below for his words and the article to follow)
So according to the Daily Local a lot of this has to do with a stacked meeting night mid-February? Who the heck stacks important meetings back to back like Supervisors and Zoning? That is just dumb and hardly good government and generally not the best practice of most municipalities – David Brown lived in Lower Merion long enough (for example) to learn that zoning, commissioners/supervisors, and planning commission meetings are all of paramount importance deserving their own time, own record, and own meeting nights. So you are telling me that West Vincent created this situation on their own? Can it be considered by the way they schedule meetings that in and of itself is indicative of showing a disinterest in true public participation? And who are these mythical people asking Supervisor Brown to rescue them from public comment? Clare Health Insurance Quinn and Ken The Goat Master Miller?
See David Brown’s in essence, campaign promises below — Good Government for West Vincent. Supervisor Brown, how is that selective political Alzheimer’s working for you?
Good Government for West Vincent is…
- Government that knows and listens to its citizens
- Government that taxes sparingly and fairly and uses what it receives carefully and effectively
- Government that fosters a sense of community among all of its people
- Government that seeks and uses the talents of all its people
- Government whose process is equally open to everyone and whose results are fair to the most
This is what we believe. This is good government for West Vincent. We hope to create an environment within West Vincent where every citizen feels their quality of life is protected; that their issue receives fair process; that they have been heard.
West Vincent belongs to its citizens, and it’s their choice how well it runs
West Vincent constructing policy to regulate public comments
By SARA MOSQUEDA-FERNANDEZ smfernandez@dailylocal.com
Posted: 03/02/12 08:19 am
According to Brown, after a board of supervisors’ meeting on Feb. 13, several residents expressed frustration at the length of the meeting, specifically toward the length at which some residents spoke during the public comments portion.
“Our purpose is to create a structure within which all West Vincent residents can speak freely at public meetings, rather than to continue permitting a few individuals to outtalk and outshout everyone else,” said Brown. “Those outshouters complain that our intent is to limit public participation. Nonsense.”
Resident Tom Helwig, Republican committeeman for the township, said the policy is an attempt to hinder the comments of those with opposing viewpoints.
“I have not seen this type of censorship since the days of the old Soviet Union and Pravda,” said Helwig.
Brown said that the individuals who complained about the length of the Feb. 13 meeting were frustrated, and that their participation was impeded on “by the uncontrolled verbosity of others.”
February 13’s Township meeting proceeded quickly and took less than one hour. It was the hearing scheduled prior to the regularly scheduled meeting which ran the normal time expected of a hearing. Hearings are specifically meant public discussion and should not be scheduled on a normal meeting night. The hearing would have been 1/3 shorter had the Supervisors read what they were attempting to vote on. Why, you might ask? Because after the issue was illuminated by one of the township residents (Patty Kozac), it was argued by the enlightened and skilled in the audience (read: planning commission members and township attorneys (2 of them)) that Ms. Kozac didn’t understand and was misinterpreting what was written. As it turned out, after the Supervisors actually read the document, they agreed with Ms. Kozac.
They (the Supervisors) then went into Executive Session for about 60 minutes. Who took the lionshare of the hearing? Three Supervisors. No individual came close to using that amount of time. As it turns out, some residents were more more familiar with the ordinance that the Supervisors approving the document.
My Husband and myself went to one Supervisors meeting on February 6th when they were suppose to discuss the Amendments to the Zoning and Planning Rules only to find that it had been postponed yet again! We were upset that there were no microphones for either the Supervisors or members of the public who wanted to speak. The only person who spoke loudly enough and clearly enough to be heard and understood was the lawyer. The meeting was a complete waste of time and, I thought, not conducted in a very professional way. There was too much mumbling going on. It is useless having a meeting when nobody can hear what is being said. And, by the way, I do wear hearing aids so it was not a case of needing them!
Thank you for taking the time to comment. Unfortunately it remains to be seen if Good Government for West Vincent is anything other than not so clever copy….