County Council’s Monday night meeting hit several new marks.
Labeling last week’s disastrous shredding event a “success” was nothing less than Orwellian newspeak.
Voting on three members to build the Penny Tax sales team without publicly revealing their names was another bizarre extension of the secret and narrow process to form that committee.
And who thought we would hear yet more troubling updates about the Animal Shelter?
The “success” of the shredding event was manifest by county employees flooding the shredding capacity before community members had a chance to bring their documents, thus causing the event to pack up and move on at least two hours before the advertised schedule. To further add to the event’s “success,” the county did not waste any money on signage at the shredding site (at least not by nearly noon) to make citizens aware the event was over two hours early due to “successful” planning and execution to the county’s benefit. Sorry, citizens.
And the meeting’s animal shelter and penny tax non-reveals were just as incredible.
Council chose to operate a secret selection process for the penny tax sales committee all the way through Monday’s secret nomination and vote. That non-transparent choice was made despite this public warning from their Penny Tax coach: “A wise person said we move at the speed of trust, and a lot of times there’s just no trust out there.”
Also, who would have thought we would hear yet more egregious updates about the mismanagement of the animal shelter … and how the only truly successful, sustained aspect of Fairfield’s animal shelter — the volunteer program — has been shut down until the county can figure things out. If they need help doing that, they should have engaged the volunteers who are truly capable of multitasking deep dives.
Yes, it was truly an Orwellian night, further amplified by a weird, loud musical background on the county’s YouTube video of the meeting, drowning out much of what council members said on the video.
Randy Bright
Ridgeway