I have written about dealing with the Park Board on some issues where the befuddling lack of logic is both intriguing and problematic. The live broadcast of recent Park Board usually ends abruptly, in mid sentence at 8 PM. I actually watch the live broadcast when I can't attend and I sent $40 dollars to the Park Board to extend their next broadcast until 9 PM and I checked with the city communications about the details of broadcasting another hour. Additional hours can be purchased for $40 from the city office.
Keep in mind that the last three board meetings ended at 9:56, 10:17, and 9:32. So I received a letter about my $40 donation: "You may not be aware that the board had extensive discussions on how long Board meetings should be and what the timeframe for broadcasts should be. Their decision was to limit Board meetings to two hours. To provide time to promote programs and board initiatives, a 3 hour time block for broadcasting was purchased from the City of Minneapolis." "We cannot accept your donation and request to extend the hours for broadcasting based on the past Board decision outlined above." In what world does this response make sense? Board Meetings don't end at 7 PM. I could find no record of any meeting ending at 7 and I certainly have never attended a meeting that ended that quickly. Even if this fantasy were true and there were no need to extend the live broadcast of the Board meeting, my donation could have been used to air some of the interesting programs that have been produced that were supposed to be on the air from 7 to 8 but have never been seen because there is never that opportunity because the board meetings almost always take up that time. If this were an isolated incident it would be no big deal, but it is systematic and pervasive, with minutes that aren't minutes, policies that aren't policies, a Park Foundation that will not meet with the board, ordinances that are not ordinances, public hearings that aren't public hearings and the challenge of trying to interpret communications about public policy and the conduct of the board that do not make sense. Thanks, Scott Vreeland Seward REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact 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 Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
