I find it very ironic that a task force appointed by our city council to draft an ordinance to control smoke filled rooms engages in smoke filled room policy making because they afraid of that the public might hear what they are saying.
Thanks to Scott Russell's reporting in the current issue of the SOUHWEST JOURNAL, we discover that the task force appointed by the city council to draft a smoke free ordinance is meeting in secret! An issue which has attracted a great deal of public attention and the answer is to make public policy in secret? What the heck is going on in the this city when the solution to a controversial proposal has to be drafted in secret? According to the JOURNAL, Chairman Rocco Forte claims he wanted members to be "comfortable to say what they want" and that by having public meetings they might not be "comfortable"! This decision stinks worse than the smoke emanating from any bar! The public interest is never served by conducting public business in secret! The notion that members of a city task force might be "uncomfortable" with speaking if the public heard what they were saying is a travesty! What is even more surprising is that the city council and the mayor seem to be perfectly comfortable with this disgusting arrangement! The only consolation may be that the mayor and the council members did not know this process was taking place in secret and they will be outraged by Mr. Forte's decision. I was told but cannot confirm, that Mayor Rybak knew of and supported the decision to keep this process secret. Perhaps someone from his office can clear this up. I happen to support a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants; even if the task force chooses that route however, the stench from their process smells so bad that it will render their recommendations useless. The public cannot trust the results from a process that is terrified of what the public might think if they were allowed to observe that process. Jim Bernstein Fulton REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
