New Mexico Central

The Effrontery Of Those Rascally Citizens

by Chuck Ring

At the October 8, 2008 meeting of the Edgewood Town Council, Councilman Glenn Felton was heard to lament (in effect) that a reasonable person would not object and apparently could infer, that the discombobulated action of the council at its October 1, 2008 meeting on a particular resolution was understandable and proper. The action in question was covered in this previous article on this blog Click Here For The Issue and in an article in the Mountain View Telegraph (MVT). The MVT reported that this writer had been ruled out of order by Mayor Stearley, when it was pointed out by this writer, that the action taken with the council vote on a formed out of thin air resolution was not proper.  While it matters little, whether I was out of order, it matters considerably whether our council’s actions are proper and “in order.”

It is elementary that the public has a right to expect that their business will be conducted in a clear, open and above-board manner. Councilman Felton has often rightly stated the same in so many words. The citizens should not have to ponder the meaning of the actions of their governing body and governing body members should not expect them to guess or second-guess their actions as a governing body. Instead of veiled “gotchas” maybe an apology to constituents (all constituents … even those who may not support individual governing body members) would be both proper and refreshing. The public is not to blame for the council’s hasty and erroneous action of October 1, 2008. In an apparent drive to secure the library space, the action taken was responsible for a couple of missteps which ended up costing time and and perhaps some reputation.

Of course, subsequent lamentations about the public’s not recognizing the council’s intent amounts to nothing more than disingenuous icing on a crumbling cake. Maybe when sitting before the public in a position that should garner respect, it might be more prudent to swallow a margin of pride than to try to have the last word when the first words or actions taken were absolutely outside the bounds of proper government.  As I pointed out in my previous article, the solution or fix to the incorrect action was simple, but absolutely necessary.

Any person who serves in a position of authority or official contemplation is bound to make a mistake if they are trying to do their job. But, the mistake is compounded if the mistaken party insists on shifting the blame to innocent people or marginalizing his or her personal involvement and responsibility for a particular action or actions.

Saturday, October 18th, 2008, by admin and is filed under "Edgewood ". You can leave a response here, or send a Trackback from your own site.