Dear Editor:

For a small community such as Rollingwood, regular city council meetings routinely run very long, typically past 1 a.m. Still, important items are left on the agenda without being addressed. Why? Is it because these meetings are not run efficiently?

For the Feb. 15 meeting, there were a large number of items on the agenda. It would have been prudent for Mayor Bill Hamilton to manage time wisely, in order to resolve as many items as possible. However, the mayor allowed some citizens to speak continuously for more than 20 minutes, instead of reminding them, even mildly, of the 3-minute time limit. He himself made long-winded statements that added little value to the deliberations.

It appears that items not to the mayor’s liking are consistently taken up for discussion after midnight, when the reporters have left and most citizens have gone home. On the morning of Feb. 16, when agenda items that might have potentially hindered his present style of running the city were finally brought up for discussion, the mayor stated that he would allow only 30 seconds per item. It was a revelation to me that the mayor has the power to restrict the City Council to 30 seconds per item, or even three minutes, especially on topics he would rather not discuss and would prefer to perpetually postpone to the next meeting.

Mayor Hamilton has also made it difficult for citizens and council members to obtain public information in a timely manner. One tactic he has used frequently is to refer requests for public information to the Attorney General. Even when he has provided requested information, there were instances when 90 percent was redacted, making it worthless to the recipient. In addition, the process is expensive for the city, since it involves legal fees. He claims to support open, transparent government, but his actions repeatedly speak otherwise.

I encourage the Westlake Picayune to expand their sources to include City Council members and citizens to achieve more balanced reporting.

Jay Jayakumar

Rollingwood
We welcome your comments on our stories but will publish only those that do not violate our commenting guidelines