By Juan Montoya
First you saw it, then you didn't.
We're talking about an ite that had appeared on the tentative agenda for the meeting of the City of Brownsville Commission.
Ostensibly placed there by commissioner Melissa Zamora and seconded by commissioner Jesica Tetreau-Kalifa, the item dealt with discussion and possible action on the city's policy of blacking out the public comment section from broadcast on the city cable channel.
The blackout (gag) was placed in effect after contract attorney Mark Sossi advised the former commission that the comments could possibly incur liability for the city if someone felt offended by the content of the remarks by the likes of Dagoberto Garcia, (The Rev.) Alex Re
sendez, Fernando Ruiz, Mary Ray, Robert Uresti, among others. Sossi said the city could be liable for defamation by allowing these gadflies to state their gripes about the commissioners, city employees, or the public at large.
sendez, Fernando Ruiz, Mary Ray, Robert Uresti, among others. Sossi said the city could be liable for defamation by allowing these gadflies to state their gripes about the commissioners, city employees, or the public at large.Former Mayor Pat Ahumada, who was as thin-skinned as he was vain, supported Sossi's lame arguments and the blackout was put in place.
We learned that Ms. Zamora had stated in her Facebook page that she had not removed the item from the agenda. And the indomitable Ms. JTK has stated in the past that she was in favor of lifting te blackout.
So now the question becomes: Who removed the item from the agenda if city protocol establishes that only those commissioners who placed the item on the agenda can remove them?
Was it Hizzoner Tony Martinez who persuaded the commissioners not to stir the pot?
No one in the city secretary's office is talking, but apparently, the iron-fist control that Martinez and Sossi have exercised over the city commission is unraveling just a bit. Or is it?
3 comments:
NOT SURPRISED IT'S WHAT COMMUNIST, DICTATORS, TYRANTS DO.
Juliet Garcia would not allow public comment if she were mayor. We have to listen to the politicos....what if a citizen takes offense to one of them or to what Mark Sossi says. Censorship at the local level. Shame on the commission.
Just finished reading the posting on the Brownsville Voice by BWC wherein he accuses Jim Barton of having “delusions of grandeur.” "Look at the pot calling the kettle black" from someone who was previously diagnosed with grandiose ideation. What a pathetic and pitiful individual.
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