How much did last night’s council meeting rock?

So much that somebody forgot to hit the record button

This meeting was 'must-see TV.' They talked, asked pertinent questions, they were cogent, they debated,…and they were civil to one another throughout. The hearing about the Rentway expansion at the Plaza, the discussion that followed, including the Mayor’s input, was informative almost beyond belief. Instead of quickly rubberstamping the Planning Commission’s recommendation to deny Rentway’s request to expand, council decided to take more time to consider the ordinance denying it and settled on one reading only.

Law Director Gibson was there to help explain a few things, especially the ordinance tying pay increases for appointed (unclassified) employees to those in the new AFSCME contract. Ms. Kelly was first to question the AFSCME reference as “murky,” followed by Mr. Gabbard objecting to it as a “me, too” clause like the one council voted against recently in one of the labor contracts, and Mr. Gibson agreed with both of them. One reading only on this one, too. Mr. Schneider read from Title VII of the ORC as part of his effort to get the Mayor’s office back to generating a yearly budget instead of council doing the heavy lifting. Oh, and Mr. Gibson seems to think council might want to revisit the topic of sexual predators and how far they should live from parks and swimming pools, not just schools.

Interruptions (we need to remember to turn our phones off at home when Jane Grote issues the order in council chambers) caused us to miss some of the meeting, so we’ll catch tonight’s Channel 4 replay at 9:30 and remember to record. But first impressions tell us we might be feeling another unscientific poll coming on, maybe two. If you can’t catch tonight’s replay, you can see it Monday at 8:00 p.m. and Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.