Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Neosho City Attorney on AR-15 raffle: The mayor is speaking for himself, not the city

(From Neosho City Attorney Steve Hays)

PUBLIC NOTICE


From the Office of the City Attorney:

Since the date of the tragic shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a local Neosho youth baseball team has come under criticism for its raffling of an AR-15 rifle constructed by local manufacturer, Black Rain Ordnance.

Along with the criticism, emotions both pro and con have been voiced. These voices include the Neosho City Mayor, Ben Baker, (pictured) who has stated his opinion as it relates to the raffle and the use of this rifle. 

Many people have made assumptions that Mayor Baker was speaking for the City of Neosho or its City Council. However, Mayor Baker’s opinion was voiced as an individual and not a representative of the City of Neosho or its City Council. Mayor Baker has previously qualified his statements as such and continues to do so today. 

The City of Neosho and its City Council have taken no official position on this matter, but leaves each opinion to its citizenry who is trusted to be well-informed and capable of deciding individually as to the propriety of the raffle. 

The City of Neosho asks that all persons engaged in this debate continue to remember the affected families who have suffered unconscionable loss due to the horrendous acts of Nikolas Cruz.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Forgot to mention that he's running for legislature.

So any free publicity this guy gets on the back of the city probably helps his agenda to serve up his his rightwing bible humping nuttery at the state level.

Next thing you know he will be a Fox Newz talking head.

Anonymous said...

Apparently the City Atty failed to mention this to the Mayor prior to his time on the radio show yesterday where they clearly introduced him as the Mayor. Most of the TV stations also labeled him as such. He has clearly violated some rules.

Anonymous said...

Career Suicide

Anonymous said...

If Baker as Mayor doesn’t speak for the community, who does? Did Richard Davidson miss an opportunity to get in front of the camera? What about the city manager? Oh yeah. The city manager (a former auditor that cleaned up the messy finances in the city) was micro managed by Baker and Davidson) and quit. After a year of “searching” the city still doesn’t have a city manager.

Don’t fool yourself. Baker is speaking for the city.