"We're not here to showboat, Frank,"

You read some of the other media coverage of this which I posted here there seems to be some variation in what really happened. NBC24 is reporting that the Crowd urged Frank to let the public speak first.

Fox is reporting that the Mayor said let the crowd speak first.

Realistically since it was a public meeting for citizens to have a chance to speak out on the budget, I'd have to say the public should speak first. It doesn't appear that any of the council members spoke or if they did it was not reported. However...council members do get the opportunity to publicly comment as often as they want to call a press conference/send out a media release as well as many other times.

Someone needs a book on etiquette.

If City Council invited the Mayor to something, then he had no business trying to direct the meeting.

That is the same as being invited to someone's house for dinner and then you tell them what time they are going to eat.

I think, under those circumstances, that Frank S. behaved very graciously. When someone commandeers a meeting, it's a difficult thing to try to remain professional.

Just ask Darlene Fisher about the school board meetings last year. How she kept her composure is beyond me.

"We're not here to showboat, Frank." Carty would certainly know all about that.

I wasn't at the meeting, but judging from what I've read Frank Szollosi had something worth hearing, which naturally would have disagreed with Herr Finkbiener and whatever manifest destiny he's pushing this week.

I'll tell you what, Frank. If Carty had put his hand on my shoulder like that, he'd leave with his arm in a sling.

People need to keep their hands to themselves also. It sounds like if they had a friendship close enough to be putting their hands on each others' shoulders - it is over.

This is proof that Carty dosen't need the Blade to alienate himself from the relationships he has with several members of council. He does that all by himself.

Oh wait, I thought I saw Kevin Millikan pull off a "Frank Face" behind the curtain....

Besides, remember the last time there was a huge public meeting? It was during Ford's tenure if I recall correctly...

"There was no need for everyone, from the contractors to the developers, to either heap praise on city council and the steam plant. There was no need for city council to speak because this was a hearing for the public. All they had to do was sit there and listen. Instead city council packed the beginning of the meeting with drivel and babble with NO substance. Everything each of those speakers said was published in the local paper and going over it over and over with each person that stepped to that podium just pushed the time limit out of reach of the general public. The "goal" of this meeting was to say "We offered the public to speak and they have spoken." It's on paper so later, when the lawsuits come, they can throw that piece of paper in front of a judge and say, "See, we even offered the public to voice their concerns and only two people said anything."

Does anyone get the same idea I'm getting, that farcial public displays like this are just part of a larger circus plan to keep the citizenry either contemptuous of (or burned-out from) public participation in the political process? I mean literally, do they snipe in meetings in such ways, by design, so that when reported they keep the public either asleep, disgusted, or impotently angry?

Politicians like Carty have already proven that sheer incompetence or insanity are NOT barriers to holding public office. Beyond that, steps still have to be taken to alienate the more curious types from political involvement.

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