Over 22 years as a newspaper reporter, I covered hundreds of city council meetings. At the time, I thought some of them were out of control.
With the benefit of hindsight, I can tell you those meetings were models of decorum compared to what I have seen in some local meetings over the past few years.
Maybe it started during the pandemic when we had the Proud Boys, among others, booing and shouting down medical professionals who came to the Neosho City Council meeting to offer information. It was a public session and comments were taken from both sides. Whatever happened to the concept of both sides providing their facts and viewpoints, listening respectfully to each other and then allowing the governing body to make a decision.
If you don't agree with that decision, organize an e-mail or phone calling campaign, picket, line up opposing candidates for the next election, but for God's sake, let the elected officials conduct the public's business.
There was a time when it was enough for people who were concerned about a particular issue to simply attend the meeting. It was a good sign that those people were upset. Now they become active participants in the meetings, booing and making derisive comments while council members are speaking.
If you want to be an active participant in a city council meeting, run for the City Council. If you are unhappy with someone who is sitting on the council, back an opposing candidate. If that person wins, he or she can be the active participant.
Attending city council meetings is a good thing if the idea is to see how your government operates (or doesn't operate) or to show your interest in a particular issue. People who are attending because they want to be part of the show is not a good thing.
That being said, while the crowd making the conducting of public business difficult is a problem, that problem worsens when the elected officials encourage rowdy behavior.
"The mayor (Dan Rife) is holding the entire city hostage," Cossey said and whether she is right or wrong about that, there is nothing wrong with her saying that to the audience at City Hall or those who were watching at home.
It's what Cossey said next that was out of bounds.
"Just by a show of hands or applause, how many of you think the mayor is holding the city hostage?"
Naturally, the crowd whooped and hollered. It would have been bad enough if it it had done so on its own, but it did so by the express invitation of a council member who should have known better.
There is a difference between being a public servant and an entertainer. I would explain the difference to Cossey but I am not a lawyer and like everyone who has watched one of these meetings knows, Cossey is a lawyer.
And if you think you might forget she's a lawyer, don't worry about it.
She'll be happy to remind you.
In other words, there are enough votes that Cossey and the newly elected council members can begin implementing the actions they promised during the campaign.
The best way for you to do that, or try to do that, is to make sure the meetings are civil, that public business can be conducted and stop encouraging bad behavior by the people whose support you already have.
How long is it going to be before we can't find sensible, qualified people to run for public office and we're left with grandstanding showboats who appear to be more interested in playing to the audience than serving the public?
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The Joplin Globe charges $428.87 for a one-year subscription. The Turner Report/Inside Joplin does not charge a cent and provides news that never makes it into the Globe.
27 comments:
Wow!!! Spot on Mr. Turner
Well said. To say the least. Another issue is Tiffany Cossey (and the 6 other council persons who will vote, with zero questions and evidencing no thought process, for virtually any motion that comes out of her mouth) seem to confuse City Hall Chambers to also be an extension of a local defense attorney’s law firm as well. Rather than focusing on city business they appear to be also working on a defense strategy for the ongoing criminal case & trial involving the former Carthage Parks Director. That’s a case and trial that’s been taken out of Carthage and taken up by the Missouri State Attorney General. Is Tiffany now working as assistant attorney to defense attorney Phil Glades? This, via her Carthage City Counsel seat? Is her call for case records, forensic audit results and police reports, which belong to the State’s ongoing case an attempt to use her office for personal interest to interfere in an ongoing criminal trial?
She’s probably not gotten much attention in her life, and she’s definitely never been the apple of any man’s eye, this is her prom queen moment I do believe
What is happening right now with the City of Carthage city council is a total embarrassment to the city. I have lived here for 24 years and while I know our city government is not now nor ever has been perfect, I cannot remember a time when we as citizens acted in such an uncivil manner towards each other. Where are our public servants who run for city council and give of their time to serve the citizens of Carthage, conduct themselves in a professional manner, and work together to see Carthage grow and be an even better place to live? I know there have been some in the past and there may still be one or two on the current council, but now we seem to be filled with people who are driven by hearing the sound of their own voice and exacting revenge in whatever form that may be and without any regard as to how detrimental it is to the current and future state of our city. As for the answer to your question posed in your last paragraph, Randy, I think we are already there. Sad state indeed.
It has been a real fiasco for sure.
Anyone who thinks this is about anything other than Mark Peterson has their head in the sand. CCU, Cossey, and their cronies believe with Rife, Dagnan, and Dally gone and replaced with their people then they have the ability to “drop the charges” against him. They are on the verge of finding out that they are not only completely wrong but they are quickly losing any support they had.
Agree
Again, thank you , Tandy, for your reporting
She is the AOC of local politics.
I would compare more towards Marjorie Taylor Greene…
The New Carthage Council looks exactly like a miniature of Washington DC if Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer had ever been given the power they wanted. Cossey = Pelosi, Snow = Shumer, Schramm and the remaining PAC puppets = AOC and the Squad.
Personal agenda, personal vendetta for Peterson, truth be damned attitude, no grounds to impeach but do it anyway. Rude, overreach, attack,, smear, and ruin people. Accuse everyone except the guilty.
Dagnan derangement syndrome.
Cackling laughing heckling crowd = their mini Antifa.
Putnam’s PAC = Soros and Co. Behind the scenes and funding the corruption
Isn't Cossey a Republican?
I was the original AOC comment poster. Well done on MTG, she's crazy too. I try to block her out of my mind!
The Proud Boys shouted down liars and fraudsters pushing false information. If by now you haven't seen through the lies they spewed, I can only call you a Branch Covidian.
RINO maybe? Cossey & Snow, and the PAC, have chosen steps exactly like our nation’s far left Democrats.
The Proud Boys are a small pp support group.
I don’t know man. A lot of people would argue that their behaviors mimic Trump and the MAGA crowd. Facts don’t matter, scream and call names when you don’t have a leg to stand on, accuse people of doing the exact thing you are charged with.
Anyway, the positive from this seems to be that people on both sides of the political spectrum can agree that the behavior of our new city council is abhorrent. Maybe this will be the unifying topic our country desperately needs, lol.
Yeah, we can definitely agree the new council has behaved egregiously abhorrently. Glad there’s agreement there, lol!
Ive learned from all this, its ok to steal 140k or more if you're friends with the good ole boys network.
Just get your son, his friend, and your wife’s good friend in office and they will attempt to fire or bully anyone seeking justice.
That would be good ole girls network in Carthage right now.
Proud boys are nothing but a trash group. I was at one of the Neosho meetings, their motto is try to bully everyone. Most of them didn’t graduate High School and wouldn’t have the slightest idea how government works. I’m also quite sure they are not nearly as tough as they would lead everyone to believe, especially when they are by themselves with out all the other morons. As a life long resident of SW Missouri it’s embarrassing how people behave now days. I guess we can thank the MAGA movement for our loss of manners.
Obviously a bunch of Team Dagnan trolls on here. He's been running rough shot over the city for far too long. The people who show up and and "whoop and holler" are frustrated beyond belief. They have been attending the meetings for well over a year begging and asking for the council to explain how they hired a city administrator outside the bounds of the city charter, why they removed the entire CWEP board without cause and only reinstated them after hundreds of people showed up and protested the decision.
Your explanation that this just suddenly occurred is just such a one sided view, how about at least recognizing the fact that Team Dagnan has been flipping their nose at these people for years.
It's sad to see that Team Dagnan would rather grind the city to a standstill then acknowledge the mandate that was handed to the current city council. Remember when corrupt politicians at least had the honor to resign......
If by “running *roughshod*” you mean holding people accountable and not allowing the good ol boys that have done and spent whatever they wanted for years, and making them justify their spending, then you are correct. That is what Dagnan has been doing.
They had cause to remove the board. Also the board is appointed by the city at the pleasure of the city. You sound like a ccu goon who only listens to the ccu and cwep narrative
If “Dagnan has been running rough shot all over the city for far too long”, then why are a majority of Carthage City employees and the Fire Department commending him and saying they do not want him fired?
It doesn’t add up. You’ve bought into a narrative. You’ve been sold lies, by the wealthy elites of Carthage who don’t want one of their buds to face any consequences/trial.
Get away for a while, clear your head. I’m sure you’re a good person, it’s easy to get caught up in the rumors and fabrications being spread.
City employee results don’t lie. It doesn’t add up.
"When you're born into this world, you're given a ticket to the freak show. If you're born in America you get a front row seat." - George Carlin
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