9/1 council meeting

Last night's meeting was a farce - more so than usual.

First issue - City Manager's report on EMS cap with HUMC. The number he got in July was not favorable (I know, we are all shocked). The projected amount for the year would be $30k+ over the $140k cap. Seems that when they came up with the magic number of $140k, they forgot to include mutual aid calls. So, HUMC went on more calls than EMTs had. He somehow managed to "renegotiate" the cap figure. He says, and we shall see, that whatever the actual amount is (possibly $175k) for this year, will be the "new cap" for next year. We will pay nothing for this service for this year. What has yet to be disclosed is what the City had to give up to get that. Was is the "air rights" lease for the walkways? That is supposed to be $250k per year. When this new contract is finalized we have to get a copy of it.

Second issue - Mayor Townes "new rules"
1. No comments from the audience - if you are not at the podium you are to act as if you are in church. If you utter a sound more than once, you will be escorted out of the room by the police.
2. During your 5 minutes of public comment the City Manager and Council are not going to answer any questions. If you are lucky, they will answer them after your 5 minutes alloted time.
3. After the meeting the Mayor told a group of citizens that they should submit their questions a week in advance if they wanted to get an answer at the council meeting.

Next council meeting is 9/15 - more people have to come out and speak up.