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Smoke and mirrors

February 2, 2022 by Guest Post

By Sue Devlin, Stevensville

There have been 3 council meetings since the beginning of January. None are available either via audio or video. First I was told by the Town Clerk and Mayor that “a cord” was missing. (Jenelle was responsible for transporting the recording equipment to and from town hall.) And then they couldn’t access the YouTube account. (Jenelle was made a manager of that account from the day she became the town clerk). “We’ve applied for a new YouTube account but it will take 24-48 hours to access it”. Then it was “IT is working on it”. Then Jenelle said “we cancelled the YouTube account and set up a new FB page called The Town of Stevensville which is up and running”. So several of us tried to find that page – not in existence. Per Jenelle “it was working fine earlier – and it is recording the meeting – you just can’t access it. We’ll fix it tomorrow and you’ll be able to access it”. No, it is not on FB. Watching Jenelle, the soon to be Finance Officer and the Chief of Police trying to get that page up and running before the meeting was so unprofessional. Sort of pathetic. It’s excuses after excuses and, to quite a few people, myself included, totally inexcusable.
So we have had 3 meetings to date that there don’t seem to be any record of, that the public at least, can access. All meetings are important – many people can’t attend in person but rely on live streaming to keep track of what the town’s representatives are doing.
There is a council meeting coming up on February 7th where 2 more council members will be approved. A couple of people applying for positions are very questionable. The date was changed from February 3rd to the 7th and mayor Gibson assured the people attending the January 27th meeting that the change and agenda would be posted on the 28th. Nope – no agenda posted after the last meeting on the 27th.
I can’t help but wonder if the continued unavailability of recording of meetings will continue until after this next meeting.
Where is the transparency that Gibson promised?

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Filed Under: Opinion

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Comments

  1. Jim Crews says

    February 2, 2022 at 6:15 PM

    If the former mayor was so great, why is it that he did not leave a turn key operation for the incoming mayor and remaining member of the admin staff?

    I have a pot of beans that is teetering on an edge. Shall I spill all the beans, or would you prefer me to just hold onto that pot?

  2. Just a thought says

    February 2, 2022 at 5:33 PM

    Have you ever thought that your buddy Brandon ran away with all the passwords to make that happen in a timely fashion? Or does your brain not function like most rational peoples brain’s do? You only know what he feeds you, so how about we just let them just do their jobs and let’s see what happens in a couple three months!

    In other words get off their ends!!

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