Northampton County Council President Ron Heckman has canceled the meeting scheduled for Thursday, April 2, at 6:30 pm. The Human Services and Economic Development Committees, who were also poised to convene that date, have also been scratched. Heckman is discussing the possibility of a video meeting with the County's outside IT provider.
Under the terms of the Home Rule Charter, Council must meet at least twice every month, and during different weeks.
Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
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Wednesday, April 01, 2020
14 comments:
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Uh oh...no council..
ReplyDeleteDoesn’t matter..
Except what will BO cover now....maybe his mouth
Our exiled county government is in protective custody. When the chips were down, they ran and hid. Its failure to long ago address basic IT issues that would enable communication with its citizens at a critical time is a glaring example of their utter incompetence. It's time to review the last few years of cheerleading posts about how great they are, in order to understand the kinds of things they were wasting time on while failing to implement basic communication services that many businesses, churches, and individuals solved in five minutes. The selfishly hateful plastic straw ban imbecile is only the most recent example. This tragedy goes back years at the county level. Communication is key to emergency management.
ReplyDeleteOur emergency management is disgraceful and dangerous. WTF have they been doing for the last decade?
The failure of the county to hold a meeting is inexcusable. The county pays a disgustingly huge amount of money for I.T. and nobody can figure out how to put an on-line meeting together?
ReplyDeleteWith all the on-line meeting companies available and smaller communities going that direction to hold their meetings, the dumb schmucks at the county level decide to cancel.
They had weeks to plan and if they didn't see the need to plan for online meetings with all the pandemic warnings then they are truly idiots.
They can pay me $100,000 and I'll have an online meeting with the the public able to participate ready by tomorrow.
There are thousands of college students sitting at home who could do this in no time. Heck, there are thousands of elementary school kids sitting at home who could make this happen probably twice as fast as some of the current “powers” in the county government center and their 3rd party contractors. Shameful display by county government.
ReplyDeleteBernie,
ReplyDeleteThink Heckman would disclose who made the decision and the reason. Him alone? A consensus?
Maybe the reason? I'm curious if he would actually use the excuse that an online meeting wasn't possible, or that a physical quorum has to be present. From what I'm hearing, nobody is going to be prosecuted for holding a government meeting online if it allows public participation.
I guess zoom is to complicated for the IT group...
ReplyDeleteTeleconferencing phones should be available... in time of National Emergency certainly rules can be adjusted to fit the County needs
8:04, As Council Prez, I think he gets to make this call on his own, although I am sure he discussed it with other Council members.
ReplyDeleteSo now what? What is their plan?
ReplyDeleteThis is disgusting.
ReplyDeleteDuring the Spanish Flu outbreak and WWII, Congress still was in session. During the current outbreak, they flee like rats from Washington.
It seems like Northampton County is following suit.
Are these legislative bodies admitting that they're not essential?
Or are they just running for cover when they're needed the most?
Either way, they should either do their jobs or resign.
This is NO time to suspend council's important work on plastic straw mitigation and the elimination of insensitive personal pronouns. Where are you council? There's important work to pretend to be done!
ReplyDeleteThe longer they're in hiding and out of business, the better for county residents. We've never been treated so well by council as to be left alone. Has anybody missed them? It's a silver lining in an otherwise dark cloud. When the virus passes, they should continue to hide at home.
No press releases about what Council is anticipating.,
ReplyDeleteNo editorials from council leaders
Talk about transparency
They are right where McClure wants them to be silent and in the background. Why do you think they can't get online? They have a multi-mullion dollar IT company that McClure hired and they can't do what a few kids in High School can do in a few minutes. The new people on council are bought and paid for by McClure. They are not mentioned on the county website aka the McClure re-election press site.
ReplyDeleteHe does have the emergency order that has him in full control of the government.
3 cases at Gracedale .1 died and not hearing about it until today....keep that communication flowing
ReplyDeleteThere is little county council can do at this time. There is little anyone can do but follow the advice of the medical professionals and stay at home if at all possible. Try not to ne a pain in the ass by clogging up the hospitals. Saw some guys shooting hoops. Some people are idiots many are assholes..
ReplyDelete