For the sake of our city please don’t stop paying attention
I have heard a lot of talk about the Belle City Council meeting that happened February 12. Some people are saying that we were wrong in the way we handled things, too loud, disrespectful, etc. That we should give them time.
Back in 2020 was the first time I came to a City Council meeting. I was upset because there was a water leak in my backyard (when I lived on Barcliff Drive) and I had been told it wasn’t the city’s fault. My landlord at the time called a couple companies to come out and have them look at fixing it and they both said ‘that’s city property we won’t touch it.’
That started a back and forth between me and the city that took about a year of arguing about it. After asking the mayor and being told nothing could be done because of the location, I went down to city hall one day and remember telling Frankie Horstman in tears that this was ridiculous and I was flooding out the whole street to the HIGHWAY.
That my shed was flooding and molding and just please help me.
The leak had reached the point of bubbling up like a spring. Frankie offered to call the alderman/woman for my ward and Ken Stanfield came down and took one look at the leak (mind you besides the employees, the first city official to even come look) and said he would get it fixed. He had it fixed that day. Turns out the meter part had broken, and with the amount of water and everything, it was leaking out where it wasn’t broken.
I came down after it was fixed and spoke about how it was ridiculous that they were so determined that they were right that they weren’t even willing to fix it just to prevent the loss of water. And it wasn’t a question of who would pay — both my landlord and myself had offered to pay for the city to complete the work.
That it was the city that allowed this problem to just continue. They had decided they were right and that was it! How much waste in cost and resources over a fix that was done in less than an hour? Simply because they couldn’t be wrong.
I started going to meetings randomly after that.
I have been a commenter about getting our infrastructure fixed. I spoke up when they tried to not fix a water leak similar to mine. But for the past year is when I really started attending meetings regularly and researching things. I really only started speaking regularly about six or so months ago. I would ask questions other citizens had if they asked me to.
I have watched the city council refuse to act to fix problems. Instead, ignoring them, or slapping a little bandaid on it. I have watched the city council lie — faced with the truth in forms of recordings of their own words AND still denied. I have watched the city council be given advice/suggestions and then sit in the city office the next day talking bad about the person who gave it versus the actual advice.
I have watched them treat friends/family differently and give them special privileges/accommodations. I have watched them repeatedly make the same mistakes and refuse to learn. I have watched them recommend someone who is being investigated for multiple alleged sexual harassment cases to go work in our schools. And give him a raise before he even got the job.
I have watched them make decisions that even they admitted they didn’t know if they could legally make. I have heard them speak to people so hateful over who those people voted for. I have watched them laugh and ignore someone who tried to stop them from violating laws. I have watched them throw others under the bus for their mistakes. I have watched them act like the city isn’t in serious trouble.
I have watched them play the victim after the Feb. 12 city council meeting, claiming they had no idea people were that upset.
Then why did they prepare an ordinance to limit citizen participation?
It’s taken them how long and how many public meetings to prepare an ordinance to limit the amount of days given to correct a nuisance violation? Yet they managed to write and approve an ordinance to limit public participation without a single open meeting or public discussion and in less than four weeks?
When did they decide they needed this ordinance? Why are we moving so quickly to silence the public, but not moving forward on things to better our city?
They claim they were blindsided by the Sunshine Law Violation charges. Yet when the original complaint was filed the city was told “hey, stop these violations and that will be all.”
But the city continued making the same violations.
That’s what the city is being charged for. The repeated violations that the Attorney General found were made in the following six months after Sheriff Heitman’s original complaint. Complaints that they are doing even now AFTER they have hired an attorney. Why aren’t they taking the time to learn and stop making the same mistakes?
And now there is talk of an alleged assault; that an alderwoman was shoved and spit on by two women. Yet she stated she didn’t want to do anything about the alleged assault. Another law broke that the city council is okay with? Why would you protect someone who assaulted you? There were over 50 people and six officers yet no one saw anything? Officer Morgan even requested assistance from the Osage County Sheriff’s Office “in case of violence.” Why request the help to manage violence and then not report it?
I can only imagine how it looks for people who are just watching now. I don’t blame you for being mad/upset/offended with how we spoke at that last meeting. But for the sake of our city please don’t stop paying attention.
Rebecca Withouse
