Request for correction to City Council Meeting for 9/27/2011

I sent the following to two Syracuse City Councilmembers, requesting they “set the record straight” when adopting the Minutes of the Special Meeting of the City Council held on September 27th, 2011, at which I was in attendance and spoke.

Councilmen Shingleton and Kimmel,

When the minutes of the Special Meeting of the City Council on 9/27/11 are moved to be adopted, please request the following changes be reflected:

1. In your packet, at the end of line 5 on page 6, the following be inserted: “When Mr. Levi was told that his 3 minutes had expired, he continued to talk, stating that ‘since the Council doesn’t have any rules, the 3 minute rule doesn’t apply’. The Mayor thanked him for his comments. Mr. Levi continued to speak. The Mayor then said ‘Sit down. You’re done.’ Mr. Levi finished speaking and sat down.” (Part of this was documented by Antone Clark, reporter for the Standard Examiner who published and article at http://www.standard.net/stories/2011/10/03/syracuse-accused-poor-meeting-procedure documenting the first half of this requested addition. Jeremiah Zohner was also in attendance and heard the Mayor say “Sit down. You’re done.”
2. In your packet, on page 17, line 1, after “Councilmember Shingleton stated that he has made a motion.” Insert the following before “Mayor Nagle called for a vote…”: “Mayor Nagle turned to Councilmember Shingleton and said ‘Larry, this is my meeting, I’ll run it how I want!’ Councilmember Shingleton repeated ‘Mayor, I made a motion.”
3. Since the minutes of the Councilmember and Mayor report were not available to the public as part of the published packet they should not be adopted as part of the minutes until the next City Council Meeting, after the public has had a chance to review them for accuracy.

Both omissions from the official minutes of the meeting are concerning in that the Mayors comments are not being fully documented and made available in the official records of the meeting. The Mayor has — on numerous occasions — stated that she is “open and transparent” and, as such, should have no objection to allowing the omissions to the official record to be made.