By Leanna Rodebaugh, Stevensville
There was a protest held at town hall last Thursday. Most of the signs held were against any more Zoom meetings.
There are several reasons to acknowledge the reasoning behind the protest. The Zoom meetings primarily have stifled the participation of in-person public involvement. If the concerned citizens of Stevensville have no voice in the process of local government, where else can they go? A Zoom meeting, no matter how well conceived and run, cannot take the place of interaction with the people attending an in-person meeting. This is not a hard concept to understand. In-person participation by the citizens is how we have interacted with the government for hundreds of years. In-person interaction allows the government to understand the issues the citizens are interested in bringing forth.
Unfortunately, the Zoom meetings held in Stevensville seem to be a deliberate attempt to accomplish two objectives. One is to eliminate public disagreement with the current mayor. The other reason appears to keep the mayor from appearing before the public due to immense embarrassment due to the recall. The mayor seems to be in hiding. He has not officially emerged since Judge Recht’s damning decision against his lawsuit aimed to stop the recall.
Whatever, the reasons, Zoom meetings need to end. There is simmering anger in Stevensville because of Zoom. There is no logical reason to continue. Other venues have offered their locations for public meetings. Venues with much more room. Venues with in place audio and visual equipment. Other towns have held public meetings. Other boards have held public meetings.
It is time for the mayor to quit hiding, to quit denying the citizens the right to participate (one of the recall issues), and to quit controlling the town. It is time to quit putting the citizens through the discord and unhappiness now facing Stevensville.
Jim Crews says
You are right.