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Indybay Feature

Councilwoman Pat Kernighan Stacking The Deck At City Council Meeting

by No To Kernighan
Below is more evidence in the form of an email from Councilwoman Pat Kernighan revealing her distaste for democracy as she tries to stack the deck at the January 22, Oakland City Council meeting with supporters of the racist "Stop and Frisk" policies for Oakland!
(From Pat Kernighan)

If you are speaking at tonight's Council meeting, please PRINT OUT your speaker card before you arrive

Tuesday, January 22, 2013 12:25 PM

From: "Pat Kernighan" Add sender to Contacts


January 22, 2013

Hello folks,

The good news is that a lot of people have signed up online to speak tonight at the City Council meeting. If you did, I want to urge you to print out your speaker card and bring it with you.

It speeds things up to have the hard copy. We are expecting at least 400 people, so many people will be in the overflow rooms watching the meeting on TV. If you are in one of those rooms, you will go up to the Chambers to speak after your name is called. Having the card facilitates your moving around the building.

Because of the large number of speakers, the speaking time for each person will only be one minute, unless a speaker has time ceded to him/her from other speakers who are present. A speaker with time ceded gets one minute from each other person who cedes, and will be allowed a maximum of 5 minutes total speaking time. If you cede your time to someone else, you give up your right to speak. We encourage people to organize in this way, as it reduces the total number of speakers and still gets their message across.

Also, it would be good for some of you to arrive around 5:00 (which I realize most people can't do due to work), as we are hearing that the Critical Resistance group may be urging their folks to arrive early and get the seats. We still want you no matter when you arrive! Even 7:30 is OK. If you have a speaker card you can still speak.

Thank you for your willingness to engage in this process.

pkernighan [at] oaklandnet.com
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Comments (Hide Comments)
by ntuit
The city council should be representing all the people of Oakland not just those who show up at meetings pro or con. The problem with someone like Kernighan is that her view of the world is distorted by where she lives and who she associates with. She already knows what the people she was inviting think. Does she really understand what people outside of her "normal, decent" people society think?

This reminds me of Nixon and his "Silent Majority." I don't think a city council person should be involved in setting up a circus and motivating people who aren't already interested and motivated to attend. It is important to listen to the opinions of those who want to speak and I give some credit to the City Council for providing a forum. However, I think most of them have their minds made up before they even go in there.

I agree there needs to be civil discourse and respect not like what the City of Oakland and it's police department did when they stormed Occupy in the middle of the night and tore it down. Unfortunately, I have no confidence in the city government of Oakland to solve anything. If the cops lived in Oakland,if their actions were transparent to the public, if there was a citizens review board and a Police Commission of citizens things might be somewhat better. The way it is "professional" career politicians and police trump the involvement of the public at large!
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