Cape comedy hour?
To the editor:
It seems that some on Cape Coral City Council are bound and determined to rewrite history and attack residents for calls to hold the city manager accountable for his commentaries and compelling him to state facts instead of attempting to “twist the record.” Council, in my opinion, needs to stop him from making derogatory remarks about some of the residents who have been working diligently in an attempt to make Cape Coral a better place to live. I have not seen such arrogance since Nikita Khrushchev stood in a United Nations meeting and, in muted bluster, pounding his shoe on a desk.
Since I was on the receiving end of this activity for attempting to hold the council and city manager accountable for what they say at the meetings. Mrs. Bertolini was quite adamant, stating she doesn’t want to hear about what the city manager said or what the council members say and that the residents don’t care anyway. I beg to differ with Mrs. Bertolini on that point because I believe the residents do care. In other words she would prefer that the city manager and the council members should not be held accountable for their words or actions.
I remember her complaining in the past about the residents who got up at citizens input time to remind some of the newly elected council members what their campaign promises were. How dare the pesky residents expect their elected representatives to be held to their campaign promises?
And, to put the cherry on the icing on the cake, there was a veiled threat to limit a citizen’s input to once a month for 5 minutes. Now that’s real encouragement to greater citizen participation
The clear message is, shut up, we will cut you off unless you say what we want you to say.
And please stop writing letters to the editor, she is tired of that as well. Why not just kill the First Amendment? That should make her happy.
I guess we the Cape Lilliputians should all make a New Year’s resolution and stop being pesky residents and just lay down and roll over. Sorry Mrs. B, I can’t accommodate you and will continue to go to the meetings and continue point out deficiencies in our government. I will also continue to speak out about commentary that is down right inaccurate.
Alas, the residents at the council meeting and at home watching were treated to a real spectacle the likes of which I have not seen since the last time I watched Bozo the Clown, many years ago on T.V.
One of our council members (Derrick Donnell) came down from the dais and stepped up to the podium. His gesture was totally symbolic and a desperate attempt to teach us, the verbal delinquents, how we should act and what we should say at the council meetings.
What a show. I guess you can now justifiably define these meetings as “Cape Comedy Hour.” In fact, if it gets any better than the show last night the city might be able to sell tickets at a hefty price.
Who knows, we might even be able to induce Gerard David to produce the TV show right here in Cape Coral.
John Sullivan
Cape Coral Minutemen