Texas open meetings requirements are pretty strict. They allow public bodies to meet in secret only for specific reasons, with personnel discussions being one of them.
And when the body shuts the door, it keeps the public out so that its members can speak freely about the issue at hand.
Tuesday, the Amarillo City Council had a lengthy closed-door meeting. No one outside the room knows what was said when the council shut the door to talk about City Manager Jarrett Atkinson and the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation board.
They went into the meeting to talk about the “status” of both — Atkinson and the AEDC board.
When the council came out, Mayor Paul Harpole announced that Atkinson’s resignation and the resignations of the AEDC board members was off the table. The city is moving forward, he said.
OK, so what the heck happened in that room?
Harpole and the rest of the council won’t say specifically. They papered over the discussion, calling it cordial, businesslike … all the things you might expect to hear. Perhaps it was all of that.
Councilman Mark Nair had called for Atkinson’s resignation on the day he took office. Councilman Randy Burkett, another council rookie, called for the AEDC board to quit.
Then they changed their minds.
Hmmm. Interesting, yes?
Since the public is left to speculate on what happened in that City Hall room, I think I’ll do a little speculating right here — about what I think should have occurred.
Harpole should have given the two brand new council members the tongue-lashing of their lives, much in the manner that President Reagan took then-Office of Management and Budget Director David Stockman “to the woodshed” for steering too far off course during the early years of the Reagan administration.
We don’t know what Harpole told his council colleagues. We do know, though, that he scolded Burkett strongly in public over Burkett’s assertion that he demanded Assistant City Manager Vicki Covey’s resignation when Covey’s retirement already had been in the works. Burkett wasn’t present to hear Harpole’s harsh words, although I’m quite certain he heard of them soon afterward.
It’s also instructive that Burkett left the Tuesday meeting quickly and fended off media attempt to question him as he exited the building.
So, all the principals say they’re happy with the way the direction the city is headed. Councilman Nair spoke of the need to pull together.
Good for all of you — and especially to Mayor Harpole, if he did what I hope he did behind closed doors.
How about I take Mayor Harpole to the woodshed?
He admonished the citizens of Amarillo to “stand up, speak up or shut up!”
OK. I’ll comply.
Mayor Harpole needs to take responsibility for the fiasco that has become City Hall. Between the AEDC/Commerce Building shenanigans, the piss-poor public relations fiasco of Downtown redevelopment and Wallace Bajalli, to the water billing mud mess, even the newspaper couldn’t endorse him – choosing literally nobody.
So, the Mayor takes his election victory and considers it a mandate to double down and become even more contemptuous, hot-headed and bullying, and can now count on the Kanelis endorsement to continue this failed path. Wow. What do I not understand?
The electorate voted for change. Real substantive change. But, I have yet to hear the AEDC admit to ANY problems AT ALL. And, yeah, between you and me and every sentient being, they’ve got some serious issues.
Where’s Mayor Harpole on the AEDC? Wearing a cute cheerleader skirt chanting “Be Aggressive…B…E…Aggressive!”
As to the Downtown fiasco, because our Mayor sees no problems other than the public’s ignorance, he sure can’t formulate any kind of solution other than more meetings to edumacate us ignants and CAVErs. He reminds me of when I tell a joke twice because I’m convinced nobody got it the first time. Sorry, Mayor…we got the joke.
As to the well-intentioned person who exclaimed, “I didn’t vote for crazy!” Neither did I. What I voted for was a change in course to be promulgated by a sincere admission of faults and problems. Neither of which I’ve seen or heard. Just because the demagogues like Kanelis run around like Chicken Little claiming that the sky might fall because of some resignations and a call for more, doesn’t mean that the emotionally sober, reasoned and considered citizens of Amarillo need to heed their shrill call. What is “crazy?” Sitting quietly in our airline seats while our experienced pilot steers us into a mountainside with his cabin door locked giving a chewing out to the co-pilot while she suggests a change of course.
And, yes, I think that the last metaphor was demagogic. But, I can admit things like the truth, unlike some others at City Hall.
So, around this point, you might be saying that poor Mark doesn’t understand that we WANT change, just not SCARY change that could lead us into an abyss of confusion.
Me, too.
But, define ‘scary’.
Is it too many people being replaced? Good, well-intentioned people?
If you say, ‘Yes!’, then may I point out that with every single change in a Presidential administration, there is an abrupt change of leadership in virtually every single Cabinet department. Like the Secretary of State, and Defense, Treasury, etc. And I don’t remember anybody calling that “crazy.”
Look…Amarillo will ultimately do just fine no matter what happens.
NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS.
So, I’ll ask this simple question of Mayor Harpole…
What changes are you proposing to address what problems?
As of this date, nothing has changed since the election that could be attributed to him, other than the Kanelis Woodshed Endorsement.
Demagogue? Why, I never …