AnonymousBy William Smithers
I support a ban on comment “pooling” at Santa Barbara City Council meetings, i.e. on citizen attendees providing slips to give their two-minute speaking time to another attendee, allowing the latter to speak for many minutes uninterrupted.
The pooling provision has been abused often in the recent past by individuals promoting specific political/social/environmental/racial agendas in seemingly endless narcissistic colloquies.
Such a ban would in no way limit or eliminate our precious “free-speech” rights. Any person following council rules as to subject matter has the right to spend two minutes expounding on it/them.
If more than one person wishes to express a point of view, each under current rules is permitted two minutes to do so.
This is fair and equitable. On numerous occasions I’ve been frustrated watching council meetings delayed by persons dressing or behaving “cute” and delivering endless orations.
Santa Barbarans should be willing to abide by rules giving them an opportunity to express any opinion that follow council guidelines in two minutes.
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We should limit the council members to 3 minutes. Eliminate grandstanding and moderate the falsehoods.
Revenge and Special Interests Win! Murillo targeted her biggest critic, Anna Marie Gott, to silence her. This is not about irrelevant comments or abuse of the pooling of minutes. This was solely about trying to silence an activist who is vehemently against many of Murillo’s decisions which are not made in the best interest of the community or the constituents who voted for her.
Silly people. Comments in front of the City Council are meaningless. Nothing is ever decided at a City Council meeting. They’ve all predetermined their position well in advance of the public meeting. Pooled or not pooled, your input doesn’t matter.
Petition Friedman to stay quite. He looks intelligent, but the moment he starts quoting others and drones on about his kids, family and his life “experiences” you understand what a idiot he is. And why Salud Carbajal left him behind when he went to Washington. The man is an egotistical idiot.
Nobody really running SB from SB. All are a bunch of saps with no connection to the past here. SB is OVER and has souled its soul to the lowest common denominators. Fix the potholes that riddle the streets here, sweep the gutters, weed the planters. Seriously, deplorable.
I don’t support this ban at all. 2 minutes is not enough time voice your opinion. I do however support banning Cathy Murillo and her cronies from SB. That would be awesome.
I disagree. Pooling, giving one’s time to another speaker, allows those who are uncomfortable at public speaking, those who fear stuttering, those who have something to say but dread being looked down at from the dais, or being videoed for two minutes, and whatever other reason of discomfort, to participate in the public process. (Of course, they could write emails/letters but those comments are never shared with the public so we have no idea how many support x, y, or z. )
I think it can be and has been abused. Cutting it off means that Council will hear from fewer people, not more. A parallel would be like insisting that a letterwriter sign only his own name to a letter and to not have co-signers.
And yet they keep voting for her. Must be really irritating.
Yup. As irritating as the continued push by people all over the world to outlaw Pitbulls as they’re clearly dangerous, horrible, bad dogs… Right? Just remember that McDonald’s is the most popular burger joint, Taco Bell the most popular “ethnic” food. Popularity and quality seldom twain. But Murillo wasnt/isnt popular. More people voted against her than for her. She is a wet noodle. Sure she’ll have her term, but I’ll wager that she will never serve again in any elected role anywhere as she’s simply not very good at her job. Just like her two predecessors, she is a shill who will continue to enlarge our debt and do absolutely nothing to resolve the many tough issues we face. So we will have more taxes, more fees, less services, more blight, more homeless, less job growth and perhaps the worst, more reliance on the ever-decreasing quality of life business called tourism…
Me too!