Jamie Valencia wants to Reduce Public Comment Time
At the last Fullerton City Council meeting, newly elected 4th District representative Jamie Valencia proposed reducing the time allotted to each general public commenter from three to two minutes. Her reasoning was to produce more efficient meetings. The motion failed 3-2 with Nick Dunlap, in what seems to be a trend, voting with Ahmad Zahra and Shana Charles – the Council’s two obnoxious moralistic pontificators.
The speakers present at the meeting objected, as well they might. That’s because many of them are constantly haranguing the Council majority about this or that, enjoying three minutes to blather away.
And of course the semi-literate Skaskia Kennedy at the Fullerton Observer couldn’t resist angry editorializing:
“In an apparent disregard for public engagement, newly elected District 4 councilmember Jamie Valencia made a motion to reduce the time allotted for each public commentor (sic) to speak at the start of city council meetings from three to two minutes.“
The general thrust of the opposition to the motion was that this proposal was an affront to public engagement, public participation, etc., etc.
Now, these are the same people who, if given three minutes will use it up, in pointless repetition, non sequitur, and in one recent case, a minute of silence just to annoy everybody.
On the face of it, Ms. Valencia’s proposal seemed like bad politics, and maybe it was.
What seems to be missing here on the part of Dunlap, Zahra and Charles is the understanding that these speakers are members of the public, but are not “the public.” They have been chosen by nobody but themselves, and represent nobody but themselves. Some of them are driven by some inner impulse to share their mental gyrations about something or other and, if given 180 seconds, will use them all.
But, hey, wait just a second. Why must all the other members of the public in attendance, or watching online be subjected to 180 seconds of the same nonsense over and over again? Why can’t everybody else enjoy shorter, better run meetings?
No one is claiming that the right to speak at a meeting be eliminated, or that “engagement” be ended. But why not make these folk distill their comments into something more concise, more relevant and more intelligent? My own attitude is that if you can’t express a general observation, complaint, or even irrelevant philosophizing into two minutes, then there’s something wrong with you.
Yeah, a compromise is needed. I’m sick and tired of having MY time wasted by Mr. Suspenders, his obnoxious wife, the outraged Zahra followers, Curtis Gamble, advocate for the homeless bus-driving veterans and students.
Curtis Gamble does NOT represent me!
Observer gets it wrong AGAIN! No surprise. Valencia wanted to limit general public comments on non agenda items to 2 minutes and leaving agenda item comments to 3. Shana and Ahmad want to limit agenda comments to 2 minutes because a pretend doctor has a plane to catch for his fake job. No Observer story on that failed attempt. No grand soliloquy on public participation or transparency.
Zahra is loyal to himself because he is self serving. Charles is loyal to Zahra because it serves her woke agenda and worldview. Why Dunlap has all of the sudden decided to join them is a mystery. Loyalty is a resolution of the soul. Maybe he’s just not the man he campaigned to be.
Dunlap’s warm embrace of Charles has been preposterous. Her loquaciousness is not endearing. It’s annoying that she enjoys the sound of her own voice so much and she finds herself to be self important enough for anyone to care. If it wasn’t for Jung, Charles would be mayor because of Dunlap. He should explain himself because we all assume the worst and maybe we’re right.
Kennedy finally wrote something with her own byline. Another lie disguised as truth story about Valencia needing to recuse herself from Walk on Wilshire because of donations she returned. That’s not how campaign financing rules work. But what’s one more lie when so many have been told.
Is it fair that I have to wait over an hour of comments from the same people who have nothing better to do to get attention on an illegal STR? My time is just as important as theirs. Government efficientcy is not just cutting waste or costs. It should also be cutting wasting my time.
Yep
I’ve sat through those meetings until 1:00 am. None of the people in that room can actually claim their time is valuable. Dorks.
Some might argue that listening to these idiots drone on about nothing relevant is the price we have to pay for free speech – the right to seek redress from the government.
That’s the job. If ya don’t like it, don’t raise $100k and waste your free time knocking doors to get it.
I will post here because the web version of the Fullerton Observer has refused to publish comments. Brady Rhodes, a professor in the geology department at CSUF, criticized Councilmember Valencia for prioritizing this afternoon reading the article clearly stating the rules and policies are reviewed each year. If this is the kind of education students receive, that speaks very poorly for the university. “Clarence Thomas” I would argue that as a marine who fought in Vietnam and my son who fought in Iraq, our sacrifice paid for the price of freedom of speech. But you can argue otherwise, which is your right.
“James Chon” those are poor examples you give: no Vietnamese or Iraqis ever threatened American free speech. However, the point is that sometimes you have to give up something to protect something more important, in this case the right for everybody to hold government accountable.
Good points from both. Questions is who is even listening after two minutes anyway?
Brady Rhodes is just another old, yellowing Observer. In a few years he, Vince Bike, and the remaining Jan Flory voters will all be gone.
Skaskia is sic, indeed.
The more of these clowns’ time on the dais wasted, the better.
I have to believe that if it were Zahra who proposed shortening public comments using the same exact logic and defense as Valencia this blog post would have an entirely different tone and view on this proposal. But because it came from gal pal Jamie “the one who walks on water” Valencia it’s perfectly reasonable to censor some and not others.
She didn’t propose “censoring” anybody, let alone some, not others. Punk.
Ohhh, touch a nerve did they? You get so moist anytime anyone dares question FFF’s favorite gal pal. It’s ok Georgie, she’ll do whatever you tell her even if she gives you your bribe back.
Freshman Councilmember reducing time for public comments is not off to a good start for a politician.
Let the public sound off with the three minutes that is afforded to them.
Many cities allow public comments for five minutes.
Had politicians fix the problems at City Hall then there would be less cynics speaking out at future council meetings.
I’d love to hear from cynics. I’m sick of hearing Mr. Suspenders and the Ahmad Zahra mob.
Limit the time the pompous, misinformed, bloviating, egomaniacal council members (which now includes Jamie Valencia) can speak, not the public. They only get three minutes as it is. We now know that Jamie is a hack bought and paid for by the Hero Organized Crime Syndicate who couldn’t care less about public input or impact.
If you have something intelligent to say, you can say it in 2 minutes.
Which proves council members and staff NEVER have anything intelligent to say.
Or they’re using a lot of words to lie. Sunaya Thomas.
Yes, she was completely bought and paid for by the public safety heroes. She earned her knee pads the old fashioned way.
And she will have to earn them over and over and over again. She works hard for the money.
Becoming more and more clear to me.
Jung now has a flunky to do his dirty work for him.
That’s not to say that I don’t wish they would hurry up and fix the sidewalk where that Canadian rolls so I can hear about something else every other week.