People who think their government is secretive and unresponsive can always find—or invent—examples to prove themselves correct. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. A recent flap in Erie demonstrates that keeping citizens in the know is one of local government’s biggest challenges.
When an ex-Mayor accused her predecssor of violating state statute to build a trail on open space, I had to look into it. Read the article on the Yellow Scene's website.
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4 comments:
This one made me smile! I have lost count of the number of times council has been accused of smokey backroom dealing just because citizens were not aware of the public events and notifications leading up to a decision. I believe it is a sign of the times. Folks just don't have the time or interest to keep up with all that is going on in the city, and only become aware when an issue appears in the newspaper, or something happens in their backyard (figuratively as well as literally!).
Dan- Interesting article re: Barbabra Connors and the trail.
First: Every citizen has a duty to educate themselves. The Town of Erie and Mayor Moore have done an excellent job of trying to disseminate as much info as possible, but citizens need to take the initiative to ask questions and pay attention.
Second: Barbara Connors knew about the trail 6 - 12 months ago. She sent an email to either Mike Acimovic or Kelley Predergast (who was head of Erie OSTAB). I am looking for my copy of this document. So she LIED to you about not knowing, and set up her neighbors to fail in an attempt to make Mayor Moore look bad.
Third: She's done this before. The Clothes Rack incident. She was quoted in the Erie Review to the efeect "that you would have to be pretty close to Town Government to know about a law like that" (that you can't put display racks on public side walks). How much closer would she have to get - she was a former Mayor and at that time was serving as Chair of the Planning Commission.
Barbara continues to act like a clueless person, but it really is just a political ploy to get back at Mayor Moore b/c he beat her in the election 2 1/2 years ago.
Hopefully your publiction and the others around will quit getting their news from such an unreliable and untruthful source.
Hopefully I can find that email w/o doing a FOIA request to the Town.
Barbara Connors sent me a brief comment re: the article:
"One thing, I was willing to speak as long as all of the others did, but you got the basic point so no big deal."
-Barbara Connors
Dan,
Firstly, allow me to congratulate you for establishing this site. I have always been impressed with your articles in Yellow Scene, and I am excited about your interest in the East County (Erie in particular.)
Regarding the trail "issue", I don't believe that I could add anything that has not already been said. Public comment on local issues has always been important
to the citizens of Erie and every other Colorado community. I believe that Erie has been more diligent than most state communities in seeking input from its citizens. The Yellow Scene, Erie Review, Government Access Programming, and numerous other venues have been available for years. The public forum this site establishes will offer a unique 24/7 format for citizens to bring their ideas and comments forth.
I recently ran for the Erie Board of Trustees (unsuccessfully), and I am currently on the Erie Planning Commission because I am a bit of a local politics junkie. I am looking forward to logging onto this site frequently to read and discuss issues we all face.
Brent Bell
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