Who’s time is it again?

I’ve never had a job like Fred Flinstone where the whistle blows and I can slide down my dinosaur and leave. Apparently this is how the Council meetings are supposed to be. That clock for the members of the public is watched like a hawk. I will give credit to council woman Grace who has done an excellent job of allowing the clock to run only when members of the public are speaking and stopping the clock when council responds.

Each public portion has a time limit. Each speaker has a time limit. However, only one of the two clocks is stopped when council is responding. This is creating the opportunity to filibuster the public’s time. It is impossible for council woman Grace to keep better time when the 30 minute clock never stops. Every speaker on 3/8/21 had *around* 3 minutes remaining on their time, but were told their time was up.

The jobs I have had were done when the job was done. Some days went smoother than others. If I had a lot to say to co-workers, a job may take longer. If I buckled down and everything went well, I may be done ahead of schedule.

My prediction on the clock

My prediction is the 30 minute clock doesn’t ever get stopped. Instead, we will hear less from council in response. They will use the end of the meeting to berate the members of the public as they have started to do. During this time the public can’t go back and forth. This is where we need to listen to the lectures they have for us.

What they don’t realize is this is the equivalent of kicking the can down the road example used to explain the capital budget.

Never asking questions or speaking up and giving opinions when voting leads to members of the public directly questioning individual council members. Lately, that has lead to some inadequate answers. Which lead to council President telling us we are asking Gotcha questions.

Similar to Mr Hutchison’s wall example on 3/8 at 49:00. Not being an advocate for your constituents will result in things being 10x worse for you down the road.