Taxpayers not allowed? How about Honest Abe?

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What the heck is going on with government transparency here?

Here’s the deal. The fee committee was meeting at 6:30 on Wednesday, an hour before the P&Z hearing. I thought I’d go, being a taxpayer and all, since I was there anyway.

Now I find it interesting that the official minutes list me as present when I was only able to enter the meeting through a misunderstanding of Marcia Leclerc and subsequently told I wasn’t welcome. The video below tells the story but here is a summary in any case.

Marcia Leclerc and Marc Weinberg were present in the town council minority office with Don Pitkin teleconferenced in. (Don was/is? recovering from illness.) I met a nice gentleman (Marc Nicol) in the hall who was there on behalf of Riverfront Recapture which manages our riverfront parks. He was giving a presentation on some new statues to be installed along the park and requesting a waiver of town fees for installation and planning. It appears that Marcia thought I was with him and so in an error of judgement (in her opinion) let me into the meeting. When she discovered I was not with Riverfront Recapture she informed me that I was only welcome for the presentation and not for the rest of the meeting which she said was closed.

Check the meeting minutes yourself. At no point was the meeting ever closed session.

I checked with other council members and commission members prior to the P&Z. They told me these meetings are always open to the public unless the committee enters executive session which they clearly didn’t. Why then did the Chair of the Fees Committee lie to me and tell me the meeting was closed session and refuse to allow me to remain? You decide, I think something stinks.

On a more positive note it seems that our riverfront park is scheduled to get a bunch of new statues depicting the life of Abraham Lincoln this spring/summer. The presentation, while having little to do with waiver of fees for the most part, was interesting and informative and makes up the majority of the video below. Check out the Lincoln Walk.

The part I like best is the cost to the taxpayers. $0, well except for the “up to $1,000″ in waived fees that Marcia didn’t want discussed while I was present.

Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Bronze, Don Pitkin, Fees Committee., Government, Great River Park, Marc Weinberg, Marcia Leclerc, minutes, Riverfront Recapture, transparency