Ben Baker goes ballistic as Neosho City Council sets special meeting to consider stricter measures to slow COVID-19 spread

Former Neosho Mayor Ben Baker signaled the call to arms today as the Neosho City Council prepares to act on an emergency ordinance prohibiting any gathering of 16 or more people except at schools, daycare facilities and businesses.

The decision is likely to be made during a 7 p.m. meeting at the Civic Auditorium.

Before any vote is taken, the council will hear comments from the public, but set some guidelines, which made Baker, a First Amendment scholar whose normal area of expertise is libraries, sound the alarm. 

After further consideration, the Neosho City Council has decided on the following:

1. Citizens now have until 5:00pm TOMORROW, July 9, 2020, to email clerk@neoshomo.org to be able to speak at the special council meeting. You must include your name and street address.

2. You will have 2 minutes to address the council. There are many people who will want to speak, this time limit will allow them the chance to address their concerns.

3. Only positive and constructive comments only. If there are any derogatory speakers, they will not be allowed to continue.

Every part of it ticked off Baker, but especially the part about "only positive and constructive comments."

No doubt about it, the city's announcement was poorly worded. While it most likely meant that personal attacks would not be tolerated, Baker, who is selective about where he sees censorship, took it to mean that people would not be allowed to speak against the ordinance.

They put out the announcement at 12:45 giving people 2 hrs and 45 minutes to send in the request to speak and be placed on the agenda. 

Then, after pushback from citizens (because most working people wouldn't have known) they changed the deadline until tomorrow at 5:00. But then added that "only positive and constructive" comments would be allowed. 

Any "derogatory comments wouldn't be allowed to continue" to speak at the meeting.

WHAT??? This is censorship! To only allow citizens to give positive comments and no criticism of elected officials is something you would hear from the administration of North Korea and not a conservative small town in Southwest Missouri! 

This is unbelievable. 

I hope the whole town shows up tomorrow and sends a message that this is wrong. You better pay attention Neosho!

If the Neosho City Council was doing what Baker suggests it is doing then he is absolutely right. Certainly more right than when he was using his position as state representative to beg Gov. Mike Parson to open up the state, claiming there was no earthly reason to keep this area closed when there were hardly any cases of COVID-19 around here.

An intelligent guess is Mayor Carmen Allen is trying to limit the discussion to the ordinance itself and hopefully prevent grandstanding fools from wasting the public's time by comparing Neosho to North Korea.