GPU, Urgency Ordinance and more at BOS meeting; 1 group of speakers hog a chunk of the time

GPU was postponed to afternoon session and I am sure the media will cover that and the Urgency Ordinance. What the media may not cover is the proclamations. For me that was the important part of today's BOS meeting.

 End result of the Urgency Ordinance, there were 2 motions. One was to direct the sub committee,  Rex Bohn and Mark Lovelace to work with the Human Rights Commission. The other was to repeal ordinance 2488. I would have liked to include testimony from the many community members and Human Rights Commission members present but I had to leave by 11 am. Normally these issues would have been addressed by then, but the meeting was delayed due to 3 people hogging a chunk of the time, oblivious that there were other important issues in the morning session.

The first  group of speakers receiving a proclamation honoring National County Government had representatives from Red Cross, United Way and a law enforcement liasion. They  took 45 minutes this morning to give redundant information that could have been referred via a website and no specifics on their topic and did a disservice to the other organizations receiving proclamations and to the audience which was waiting for the other proclamations and the Urgency ordinance. Most people have 1 representative speak, not 3 and they should have limited themselves to 15 minutes at the most and Rex should have politely cut them off when they went on and on for half an hour. By this time, the audience's eyes were glazing over more than Krispy Kreme donuts.

The agenda was too packed, maybe the DHHS report which was not time sensitive could have been scheduled on any other Tuesday when there weren't 6 special presentations and hot topics like the GPU and Urgency Ordinance.

Someone should clue Barbara Caldwell, Dan Larkin and Gabrielle Parkinson that this was not a report on their work, they should have said thank you and highlighted their various organizations' efforts and actually given specific practical tips on disaster preparedness. The excellent question from Supervisor Estelle Fennell should have been what they should have discussed.

I have been observing certain things at public meetings, in the courts and the community for a while. And sometimes, like this morning, being silent is not an option. Important proclamations on child abuse prevention, sexual assault awareness, Social workers, Worker's Memorial Day, the local Granges and Literacy all did not get the time and attention they deserved because of some selfish people with no social skills or sense of community.

I realize sometimes I ruffle feathers when I call out certain people on this blog but I do because others do feel the same way I do (they tell me and they write to me) but to speak out would jeopardize their jobs, their funding and they have families to support.