Council meetings warped

I attended the most recent Spokane City Council meeting as a member of the Spokane Alliance, an organization that represents common interests of 20,000 Spokane citizens from various education, labor, faith and nonprofit groups.

There were over 60 members at the meeting. Also in attendance was a disgruntled individual who gave his personal opinion on every matter brought before the council – whether he had a qualified position or not. Carefully arranged testimonies of Spokane Alliance members, centered on funding cuts to many important community resources, received equal time before the council as the singular testimony of this man.

How can it be that the collective voices of 20,000 were single-handedly matched by closed-minded testimony of one unqualified individual? The structure of the council meeting stymied the democratic process to the detriment of the Spokane public.

I urge members of the Spokane City Council to organize their meetings and procedures so as to respect the time, efforts and enthusiasm of those groups of citizens presenting concrete concerns and coherent solutions regarding matters of this beautiful community.

Scott Hippe

Spokane