[Vision2020] City Council Meeting

[DonaldH675 at aol.com]

Thank you Saundra for attending the city council meeting last night and  
sharing your impressions with Vision 2020.  Your report, coupled with  the Daily 
News article, raises some red flags for me.  I don't know if you  can answer my 
questions, but perhaps a city council member will do so, or any  other Moscow 
resident with some institutional memory regarding city council  history and 
procedures.
 
1.    Is it the case that last night the city council  members, with two 
exceptions, actually voted to pay what appears to be operating  expenses for the 
Chamber of Commerce?  How can that be?  And, if that  is so, what is to prevent 
other *beneficial* organizations, with a history of  discriminatory hiring 
practices and a questionable financial future, from  lining up at the public 
trough in a similar manner?  Surely, those  organizations should have their 
financial expectations met as well. After all, a  precedence has been established.  
How long has the City Council engaged  in such usual financial support? 
Surely the dues the City of Moscow  pays to the Chamber are intended to cover these 
routine kinds of  expenses. I must have  misunderstand what you and Ms.  
Bacharach have written.  Help me out here, Saundra.
 
2.    The article and your email suggest that in the  press of business the 
Chamber has been unable to develop a written  non-discrimination and equal 
opportunity hiring policy.  Since thousands of  examples of these polices are 
available on the web, or simple phone calls  to the University of Idaho, 
Washington State University, or Moscow School  District would instantly produced 
carefully crafted statements, readily  available for discussion and voting on by 
Chamber members (in short, it would  take less than 3 minutes to ask for, receive 
and email this material to chamber  members) what possibly could have 
prevented this from happening?  (It is my  conclusion that this was not a priority or 
that Chamber leadership reject such  policies and so have simply avoided this 
task.  If I am correct in my  assumption, why in the world did five of the 
seven Council  members vote to reward this behavior?  Do they also share this  
perspective?)  Isn't there a City Council election  this year?  I think this 
response - which certainly can be construed  as enabling behavior  - would be 
firmly imprinted in my mind if I  were able to vote in a city election.  I must 
have  misunderstand what you and Ms. Bacharach have written.  Help me  out 
here, Saundra  

3.  And finally, did you indicate that the on-line information packet  failed 
to include any materials related to this request?  Was this matter,  which 
appeared to be unresolved on the committee level somehow elevated to  an agenda 
item for the whole Council to consider?  Somehow this suggests  some monkey 
business - especially when coupled with a lack of public information  available 
in the packet.  Who arranges the agenda, and who forwarded the  matter to the 
whole Council for a vote?  I must have  misunderstand  what you and Ms. 
Bacharach have written.  Help me out here, Saundra  

Thanks,

Rose




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