Okay, where do I begin.
While at the State of the City event, I was told that the mayor is on board to broadcast local government meetings on public access. I was told by an old wise politician one day that EVERY move a public figure such as a mayor or governor does is usually politically timed or politically motivated so when I heard this, these things came to mind:
1.) This announcement is in someway combined with his speech which is basically a kick-off for his re-election campaign.
2.) After two years of very hard stonewalling, there is no way the mayor is completely on board to do this.
3.) The mayor is probably throwing a few bones to calm his Republican supporters and the News-Times down. Remember, we're now in re-election mode and Boughton is no idiot...why should he give any Democratic challenger a gift like accusing him of blocking the public from what's going on at City Hall.
Now, take everything I mentioned into consideration and come back later when I have Boughton's state of the city speech posted. Don't get me wrong, I'm psyched that Boughton is doing SOMETHING, I just question the timing of the whole matter as well as the details behind what he's actually proposing to do.
In any regard, hats off to all those who pushed this issue from day one. From Democrats such as Lynn Taborsak and the DTC who pushed the broadcast petition, to Republicans like Lynn Waller (although it really killed her to criticize the administration until Cavo got under her skin) and Ivon Alcime (who basically said "the hell with it," brought a camera to city hall, and placed his video footage on public access), it was good to see that this issue went beyond party lines and that everyone in there own way (including myself...and trust me, I have many more videos on this subject that I was ready to unload) to keep this issue on the hot burner.
I can't forget the News-Times who really went out of their way to whack the mayor upside the head with their hard-hitting editorials...and people think I'm harsh on the mayor at times.
Okay, enough of the congrats...I'll come back later and explain why everyone should not do a HUGE happydance yet. A small dance yes, just not a HUGE dance quite yet.