When I pulled into the parking lot at City Hall and noticed the personalized license plate of my neighbor, Harpy, (in Greek Mythology the harpy was a winged death-spirit), I knew this was going to be a contentious meeting. True to form the ‘harpy’ lived up to her namesake and cast a pall over the entire proceedings.

Before elaborating on that it should be noted that the council addressed the matter of the seat vacated by Kathy Hagen and attempted to clarify nomenclature used to define the process under which Dian Courtright was presumed to be given a seat on the council. The rub was in the use of a general term of meeting rather than using the term “polling” of the members. So, as I have stated before there is a lot of hair splitting, to what end, I don’t know but a couple of embittered sounding citizens do not want to let it go.

While a city council meeting was hardly the appropriate place to bring up such a matter, the harpy, apparently desperate for a public venue, demanded that the mayor tell her which local media to believe. Probably, the mayor should have just advised her that it was not within the purview of the council to make journalistic judgments on her behalf.

The harpy then quoted a comment from this blog

As for the ex reporter, his base is eroding as the old guard falls by the wayside. Had he done his job and actually informed the public instead of peddling whatever line his heroes wanted him to, he might still have a job. Had he behaved like a journalist instead of a groupie the city might have been spared tens of thousands of dollars in settlement claims.

Well I stand by that comment 100%… in my opinion the reporter in question should have investigated the many claims of police misconduct instead of carrying water for the city manager and the former police chief. Had he done what newspapers are supposed to do, advise the public that people were afraid of the police officers and not because they were lawbreakers, Reaves might have been gone sooner and tort claims and labor grievances filed and paid may not have been incurred.

There is an old phrase, ‘birds of a feather flock together’ and it is interesting that the former reporter’s best fan is the harpy. While she went to some lengths to defend the reporter it was clear that her only purpose in attending was to settle a score with The Sentinel by attempting to humiliate the paper in public. She accused the paper of publishing lies about her written by me, which is pretty rich given the countless lies she has told about me AND my ten year old daughter.

The article she is probably referring to relates to my objection to providing DA Paul Frasier with additional funds via Measure 62 to run his office, in which I use my own personal experiences, truthfully, to illustrate my point. The really funny thing is that few people would even know she and I are neighbors were it not for her obsessive need to announce the fact to anyone willing to listen.

This is not the first time this woman has misused a city council meeting. More than a year ago she slandered me at a city council meeting, when I was not in attendance, for fifteen minutes even claiming I had a criminal record and had been on probation. Why the council allows the type of thing that went on then and again tonight is beyond me… the woman is rude and out of line. Her venom has no place in a public forum pertaining to city matters. My personal opinion is that she has demonstrated her mental instability well enough and publicly enough that the police should have her evaluated by DHS as a danger to herself and others.

Further, the mayor discussed whether bloggers should be considered media and therefore be allowed to attend executive sessions. Many cities are attempting to define ‘media’ and there have been several battles over the matter in Oregon.

Mark Bunster started an unexpected controversy three months ago that now has legal and media experts across the state scrambling.

As the author of political blog Loaded Orygun, Bunster insisted at a Lake Oswego City Council meeting that he was a member of the news media and therefore, under Oregon statute, allowed to sit in on executive session meetings.

Lacking a clear policy on the issue, Lake Oswego city councilors asked Bunster to leave.

Apparently sensitive to the matter a local blogger and erstwhile reporter for The Sentinel interrupted the mayor and ‘jump’ed in to quote the 1st Amendment and assert his rights to attend executive sessions. Meanwhile the normally taciturn city attorney spoke for the second time that night and seemed predisposed to accept one blog but was less sure about accepting ALL blogs as ‘media’ (could he mean me?)

It was a big night for city attorney John Trew who was also asked to give his opinion regarding the seat vacated by Kathy Hagen and seems to be of the opinion that applications for the position complete with interviews before the council should be the manner in which the seat is filled. My understanding is that Coos Bay had a similar experience a while back and opted for that route rather than taking the next highest vote getter and all hell broke loose.

Probably they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t at least if the dynamic duo mentioned above are successful in their quest to rile up the masses.
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