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Contributed commentary by John Holbrook, a “constituent of Clarksville for over 40 years,” in response to “Why does Clarksville City Council want to keep you out of government meetings?”
It’s hard to believe that the City Council wants to play cloak and dagger (cloak the meeting in secrecy and stick it to your constituents after the fact); that’s not the way a representative government is supposed to work. You were put into office by us, the taxpayers, to take up, debate and make laws on issues on behalf of the whole community with our oversight, i.e., meetings that are transparent and open to the public. On the other hand, it doesn’t surprise me since government views us as useless air breathers and now, our very own City Council representatives (not secret agents) want to fall into lockstep by getting rid of laws (Sunshine Law) and or amendments that are not beneficial to them, but this is just my opinion.
This could easily become a Pandora’s box or a game of hungry sharks where we, the people of Clarksville, unknowingly become the bait. Like mentioned in your article, they could tax us into oblivion without oversight, give themselves large pay raises, make deals under the table, spend large amounts of taxpayer money on useless projects that don’t benefit the whole community. Isn’t this what’s wrong with our country now? With inflation what it is, goods and services have gone up, paychecks are a little light, people have got their attention focused on trying to keep food on the table, a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs, we would like to believe that our City Council representatives would want open and transparent meetings to build confidence and a rapport with their constituents.
To have city meetings in secret doesn’t even make sense to me, it’s not like they are discussing national security issues; its issues of schools, parks, land purchases and other city issues. Having meetings in secret makes me believe – and I might be the only one that thinks this way – but there might be nefarious reasons for wanting this, palms getting greased and pockets getting lined, but that’s just a thought, and I hope I’m wrong.
Come on Clarksville City Council representatives, be that bright beacon on the hill, where others will want to emulate, keep the meeting open and transparent, not in secret.
John Holbrook