[Vision2020] Daily News Letters: Expected better from Ament

[Area Man (Dan C)]

>From the Jan 12 Daily News Letters to the Editor
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Expected better from Ament

Gordon Johnson suggests (Opinion, Jan. 5) the Democratic Party need look
no further than our own front doorsteps for the major reasons that we
have been, for the most part, unable to win many presidential elections
in the past 40 years. 

The stunning arrogance displayed by Aaron Ament within 10 minutes of
having officially taken his seat as a member of the Moscow City Council
is, I believe, a prime example. This is a man whose central campaign
message was that the previous council and the city of Moscow in general
were conducting too much business behind closed doors, and his primary
obligation and focus as a councilman would be accessibility and openess
to input. Yet his very first act as a councilman was to blindside the
council with a proposal designed to circumvent more than a year's worth
of work by the Planning and Zoning Commission and the previous council,
inclusive of the public input that was part of that work, and to
circumvent the required public notice in order to do so. 

To call him a hypocrite would be giving him the benefit of the doubt. I
can think of other less flattering terms. Is there some difference,
Ament, in the astonishing level of arrogance displayed in such an antic
and the level of arrogance our president has displayed? If so, I can't
see it. 

Thankfully, Mayor Nancy Chaney cut to the heart of the issue in the end
and changed her vote, despite her support for the underlying premise.
Kudos to her for doing so, and to councilmembers Weber, Pall, and
Lambert for immediately recognizing the proposal for what it was. 

Ament, you were not elected to council to attempt to unilaterally
implement your own personal biases. We expect better. 

Hopefully, we'll demand it. 

Curt Parsons, Moscow 
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Sittin' back and watchin',

DC