In the past, if you had an issue—water pooling in your yard, a neighbor’s car rotting on blocks for 2 years, noise—or whatever, you could call the city, get an “Agenda Request Form,” fill it out, and be placed on the agenda. Your issue was then officially on the public record and could be actioned. Undoubtedly because I have brought up too many thorny issues, Council has scrapped the Agenda Request Form and now they will give you 3 minutes to talk about your issue. At this point it seems unclear whether they will discuss and deal it, or as they usually do with me, just blow it off.
This keeps them from having to deal
with tough issues like the one I brought up Monday night. For many years, I
have objected to the toxins randomly applied on the field behind me, as they
drift up on my garden and onto the food I am growing. Not to mention over on
the pool where mostly kids swim. Now that the court system has established a
connection between these toxins and Monsanto/Bayer is paying out big bucks, I
believe ordinary people demand limitations on their use. At the previous
council meeting I had presented a model ordinance advocating them, and was told council can’t pass such an ordinance. You have to write the Federal Aviation Administration and the Iowa Dept. of Agriculture. So I went home, drafted a letter, presented at the following and asked them to co-sign it. Carl Kelchen’s grandson refused because it was too public—Andy if you don’t want take public actions, you shouldn’t have run for public office. Other doing the right thing by the people of this community, Kelchen sat there texting most of Monday night.
Of course, every time the democracy comes up, Mike Delaney starts acting like a male gorilla pounding his chest and saying “We were elected…” Yes, that means you get the vote, but you are not the only voice that can be heard--democracy protects the reasonableness of other people's arguments as well. Do you know what the term “tyranny of the majority means?”
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