Jeff Pruitt, with my undying gratitude (well, maybe not that limitless), has posted a video on youtube of the Tim Pape handling of the impromptu public hearing held at this past Tuesday’s City Council Meeting regarding the Open Government ordinance. If you haven’t been following this, check out this previous AFW post as well as these two on Jeff’s Fort Wayne Politics: Unacceptable Delay For Open Government Ordinance and More Problems With City Council Minutes.
The reason I asked Jeff to put this together is that I felt it necessary for citizens to see how he handled himself. After watching the video again, I did not experience the same feelings I had Tuesday night sitting in Council Chambers – until the end. But watch for yourself. Here’s the video:
Perhaps what I am missing tonight, is the tenor of the entire discussion of the ordinance – what led up to it and what transpired afterwards. From where I was sitting, I could see the steam and feel the heat. In fact, Karen Goldner makes a comment at the start about, “being in the middle of this.”  If you would like to watch for yourself the entire ordinance discussion, you may do so at the City’s Streaming Council Meetings page. Unfortunately, I can’t give you a time to start with because timings are not included on the screen.
By the way, I just noticed that only the last three meetings are available. I could swear streaming the meetings started this past February. I can imagine that the video files are a pretty good size, so perhaps space only allows the past three meetings. But only having the last three meetings defeats the original purpose. The original purpose was to give citizens an alternative to having to travel to the City-County Building and watch a video tape.
The only other thing I’ll say about Tuesday’s meeting, is that there seems to be great animosity simmering just below the surface with our current City Council. I’m not sure of it’s origins, although I do have a few ideas. What I would say is that it needs to be settled soon – or it’s going to be a long four years for council members. That would be to our benefit as these meetings have quickly become the best show in town!
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