Santa Cruz City Council Meeting - Call for Action

I posted my thoughts on this problem in an earlier comment which I posted under the calendar, but it disappeared or didn't get posted. I also posted the following, which reflects my concerns:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/09/17/18539316.php?show_comments=1#18540724

Additionally:

If enough people show up to protest, it probably won't matter, but the time you can actually talk to those at City Council (both Clownsil members and the public) is before the Council meeting and during the recesses. True, this won't go out on live TV (unless live TV shows up), but you don't risk "disrupting a public meeting" charges, and aren't under the thumb of Coonerty's "no comments until after 5 PM and then only for 2 minutes" rule.

Another option is to get a Council member to put an emergency item on the agenda demanding an immediate suspension of the Parking Lot Panic law, investigation of the police action, and future safeguards to prevent such abuses. Folks can call Councilmembers at 420-5020 urging this be done.

The City Council agenda can be found at http://64.175.136.240/sirepub/pubmtgframe.aspx?meetid=129&doctype=AGENDA

A quicker way to contact Mayor Coonerty is at 831-423-8939.

My thanks to indybay for covering this in such a timely manner. A previous post of mine was not deleted, as I suggested above, but didn't get sent. The post read:

"Mayor Coonerty controls the agenda and has put Oral Communications at the end of the agenda. Unless he makes some special provision for folks to speak at the beginning, folks will have to wait 2-4 hours before getting a chance to speak. Coonerty has eliminated the evening session for the 23rd and so there is not the usual 7 PM Oral Communications period.

I suggest for that people gather at least twenty minutes before City Council and speak to the group in Council chambers BEFORE the Council meeting starts (which is an unregulated period).

Or else be aware you need to either wait 2-4 hours to be "given permission" to speak or find some way of relating the Public Assembly Ban and the Police Assault to other items that are actually on the agenda."

Da Mayor is out of town, so the Vice Mayor was in charge. Despite requests from the public and Tony Madrigal to allow public comment earlier, Cynthia Matthews put it off.

So after waiting over 2 hours to make a comment, the City Council did nothing. Most folks had to leave before then, so there wasn't a whole lot of people left. I asked the council to DO something and was told by Cynthia that "this is not the forum for that."

Sgt. Smarm, I mean, Sgt. Harms was there. He gave no testimony, just stood with his arms crossed. So we paid a cop to stand around for about 3 hours for what? We sure know how to waste money.

On my ride home, I came up with an interesting idea.... Why are we voting for City Council? They aren't the ones running this town. The cops are running part of it and they do what they want.

So it's obvious that if we want anything done, we have to do it ourselves.