A response to the article in The Detrroit News - Mayor Bing shuts down community meeting after audience gets unruly, September 27, 2012. I've included in the bottom video captured and streamed live during the meeting.
Consider being given 1.5 minutes to speak your piece, you ask a question or two and get no response or if you get a response it is slanted and begs for a brief conversation to be clear. It would only take 3-4 questions back and forth and it would be understood better.
Agreed it requires order to hold a meeting and have conversation - but this administration hasn't been giving the people voice. They don't show up when requested at City Council meetings before the public. Notices coming from the Mayor's office have to be watched for diligently - we need more advanced broadcast of when things are happening. The post was made on the
detroitmi.gov site on Friday, then a flyer was made available Monday before the Thursday meeting.
Shutting down the meeting with the amount of unheard dialog was wrong. This is not the first time he's shut down a community meeting early. District 2, District 4, and now District 5 meetings took less than one hour. Comment cards were taken by more people than were allowed to speak.
Usually unruly people are removed from the meeting. But there comes a point that actions speak so much louder than words. Dealing with off-duty first responders isn't going to be easy - police on off-duty police, but that happens to be the situation. The people of Detroit have interesting situations like that all the time! The Mayor doesn't interact with street level Detroiters like he did when campaigning. Those that voted for him probably saw him around events and thought he would be visible and accessible. What happened to that man who spoke up against corruption and
promised transparency in this video from December 16, 2010? Interesting how the closing comments from the reporter say "this is an ongoing investigation."
Get to Know the Street Better
The City of Detroit is being administered through the Mayor and State of Michigan against the will of the people. He says there is a small very vocal minority ... I watch the streets, talk with my neighbors in Northend, and fellow bus riders. We aren't happy and why is it the Mayor can't hear it? He'll say the "numbers show..." but those numbers are skewed by a variety of influencing factors. Walk with the people and get to know them, not through the churchs and organizations that represent your interests. Getting a handle on dissent takes courage. I can imagine the District 3 meeting was a welcome surprise with little dissent. Few people came for it. You had just gone out on a mission to board up 100 houses, and a community representative stood up and said "If we would have known about it we would have been there."
The District 3 meeting was being held in a school turned over to the EAA School District (without the public having opportunity to intercede in that matter). The State of Michigan has kept elected officials out of power far too long in educating our youth - so long many have completely gone through school as dictated by the State with minimal public intersession. You wonder why our streets have youth problems, look at the state declared emergency that has ran more than a decade.
Accountability and Presence Needs Increased
The Charter is flawed in the level of accountability the Mayor has in holding Community Meetings. It states the meeting is to begin between 7-8pm. There is no requirement on length of time and failing decency in hearing the public 5-15 minute meetings are likely what we can expect from Mayor Bing as he visits District 6 and 7 in the next month or two. We don't know when exactly, but we're listening for an opportunity to see you sitting behind a table flanked with the COO Chris Brown, Executive Fire Commissioner Donald Austin, Police Chief Ralph Godby, CFO Jack Martin, PMD Kryss Andrews, and various department directors.
We the people would like to invite the Board of Ethics, the Law Department, the Auditor General, the Inspector General, and Ombudsman to the upcoming meetings and be able to engage them in questions. We would like some honest meetings with dialog. We have asked the Financial Advisory Board to attend and the members of that group indicate they can't. We are not sure how you can hold a position that influences the livelihood of thousands of people and not see them in their moments of struggle. That appears to be the mode of operation for the executives of this administration - sound-proof glass wall with distorted vision firmly placed in the way. Consider it a challenge to come out from behind the barrier and respond through dialog.
Video From The Meeting
