Fed Up Council Says Forum Flunks Members Ready To Return Comment Time To Bottom Of Agenda

There’s the guy who looks like Jesus. He wraps a white scarf around his forehead and brings messages of doom to the Spokane City Council.

There’s Jimmy Marx. The Gypsy leader rants about the endless list of ills heaped upon his family by the city.

There are people who want to see someone elected, or want themselves elected, or want some issue to win or lose at the polls.

And then there are those who want real issues addressed: runaway children, speeding cars, messy neighbors.

The City Council’s weekly public forum is just that - a place for people to complain about or congratulate city actions - on live TV.

Now, in an about-face, council members want to pull the plug on the televised forum, moving it to the end of their meetings and possibly taking it off the air.

“It’s a grand and noble experiment gone awry,” Councilman Chris Anderson said Monday.

To drum up public input, council members moved the forum last summer from its normal spot at the end of the meetings to the beginning. They also decided to televise the previously unaired segment.

The combination turned the 30-minute forum into a “dismal failure,” members unanimously say.

Now they want to move the forum back to its original slot.

“It’s absurd,” said Councilman Joel Crosby. “It’s used as an attention-getting device. For some, it may be therapy and for some, it’s a campaign vehicle.

“You even have people who could be physically dangerous.”

Even Anderson, who considers himself the council’s strongest advocate for the people’s voice, thinks moving the forum to the start of meetings was a mistake.

“I don’t want to sit here and listen to the ranting and tirades I’ve heard over the last few weeks,” Anderson said.

A proposal to move the forum turned up suddenly on Monday’s council agenda, but action was delayed until January - when the new council members take office.

Anderson suggested in October the forum be moved, and his colleagues unanimously agreed.

Councilwoman Phyllis Holmes asked last week that the item be put on Monday’s agenda because she was tired of waiting for Anderson to do it.

“Some of us have been asking for this for weeks,” said Councilman Mike Brewer.

“Phyllis seized the bull by the horns and brought it forward.”

Anderson said he delayed bringing the issue forward because he wants more public input.

Several people spoke against the idea during Monday’s forum.

Delaying the forum until the end of the meeting will discourage public testimony, especially since people must sign up to speak before 6 p.m., argued Indian Trail resident Mike Page.

“In essence, if nowhere else, this is the place where citizens could come and be heard,” he said.

“To take this and put it to the tail end of the program so that only the true diehards - perhaps those with masochistic tendencies - will stay around, is a disservice to the public,” said Spokane resident George McGrath.

, DataTimes