Interfering with the administration or voicing an opinion

...to this:

1) Calling on a chairman of a committee - appointed by the mayor - to resign could be interpreted as interfering.

2) There wasn't really a meeting going on, due to the lack of proper notice, so open comments were to be expected.

If we read the language as written;

"Except insofar as is necessary in the performance of the duties of his or her office, no member of the Council shall interfere, directly or indirectly, with the conduct of the administration or directly or indirectly take any part in the appointment, promotion, or dismissal of any officer or employee in the service of the City other than the officers or employees of the Council and except insofar as Council confirmation is necessary to fill a position as required by this Charter."

We might see that what McNamara did was a comment on the appointed person after the appointment was made and not during the process or during the select of the appointee.

Then the other question is; Is the Mayor and his spokesperson alleging that by McNamara's comment, McNamara is taking part in the dismissal of the appointee or was McNamara simply expressing a view point, that of course the Mayor and spokesperson do not agree with and just could not leave it at that and instead create more controversy.

Was the place of the comment out of line? There was no meeting that was occurring and McNamara's comment would have been ruled out of order but as there was no meeting, the comments were made in a place where people were assembled.

The crux of the matter seems to be able that when you speak out, look out for the proverbial wagging finger and letter of condemnation.

Here's a novel idea; maybe just let the person speak their piece and instead of letters of reprimand, just let the issue go, or is the ego to big for that.

http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog

In my opinion, Council is to do whatever the citizens tell it to do. Joe made a choice to make a stand at a public assembly. Good for him! I see the bulk of Council as another "arm" of the problem in this city. They are for the most part, weak, intimidated and out of sync with the citizens.

The "Charter" was written, especially in this case, by individuals that sought to protect themselves from answering to the public. Though "forum" can be debated, in my opinion, any place, any time the elected and appointed are gathered is a ligitimate location for expresion of public and personal opinion on any public issue. ANYTHING THE ELECTED DO OR SAY DURING TENURE IS OPEN SEASON.

Furthermore, this further demonstrates the absolute need to remove the OBC once and for all!

My opinion is that I commend McNamara for speaking out about something that was obviously tasteless. Because of all the other things going on in the city his comments and the mayor's response hit me as another case of A Team and B Team bashing. Hey folks, Toledo is falling apart at the seams. Citizens are moving outside the city limits, services are awful, there may be suspicious activity going on in the Government Center compromising tax dollars, and Toledo is known across the country as one of the most gender bias and racist places to live. There doesn't appear to be a united anything except those in power screw the citizens who aren't.

I came to Toledo with my mother more than five decades ago from a sleepy little town in the South. My mother came here to find a job and to raise me. Once I became an adult, I chose to live somewhere else rather than deal with the gender bashing and rampant racial discrimination so characteristic of Toledo. I returned to Toledo three years ago after living in another Ohio city for almost twenty years. I regret my decision to return. Why, because our so-called leaders in government spend more time bickering about nothing rather than moving Toledo forward. And, those of us who do honestly try to move Toledo forward are ridiculed and belittled. As long as the government officials continue to behave as our current government officials do, us citizens will continue to lose, lose, and lose.

I invite the government officials to stop the bickering and move our city forward. I invite them to end the gender bias and racial discrimination practiced by the current mayor and his administration.
I invite the current city administration to spend our taxes in a way that we will know what our tax dollars are being spent on instead of most of wondering whose buying a retirement condo in Florida.
Lastly, I invite McNamara to continue to speak up, but speak up about something that really matters and not because the A Team doesn't like the B Team and vice versa.

I think that Joe McNamara is the best thing to happen to this City in a long, long time.

I think Joe thinks he's trying to save his party. I can't blame him for that.

MikeyA