It sounded like extortion

Monroe's city council meeting last night was pretty interesting. Seems like the firemen and policemen can feel the heat coming down. Sounds like the city is telling the police and fire chief, here's some money, you figure it out organizationally and we'll squeeze the rank and file in negotiations.
Will be interesting to see how it turns out.
What I maybe didn't hear right was the officer who sounded like he was engaging in a little extortion of councilman McGhee. He said something like we're taking this neighborhood policing initiative and if you cut the budget that will be in jeopardy. That was kind of a cheap shot and it cheapened the previous work that Lt. Barclay Stewart and others have done over the years, much of it gratis -- meaning it had little to do with police budgets and more to do with police professionalism.
That little comment directed at McGhee was an insult to the entire city council and the entire city police department.
I didn't catch the cop's name, but he should stay away from council meetings from now on.

Tale of two businesses

Wow! Two downtown Monroe businesses bite the dust at the same time.
But not because business has been slow.
Zorba's Coney Island and Jefana's, both owned by Jeff Fraunhoffer, now are closed because he was behind in rent to the Beneteau family that owns the buildings.
Complicating the matter was that Fraunhoffer was convicted of serving kids alcohol and showing them porn.
Those were the only complaints that made it to court, I guess. All sorts of kids have cycled through those places and left with complaints about everything from nonpayment to death threats.
Does this mean he has to give up his membership in the downtown business network.

Inconsistent truths

I caught the re-run of the last Monroe City Council meeting and was amused by some of the citizen comments at the bitter end of the meeting.
Mr. Rankin stood up and asked the city why they put city funds on deposit with banks like National City and Monroe Bank and Trust. I think he did truly call them Ku Klux Klan banks where blacks can't get loans and his granddaughter can't get a job.
My guess is that he's got some legitimate gripes, but it probably isn't the fault of Monroe Bank and Trust or other banks. Everybody who loans money is being real cautious now because of the economy. I'm told that the behind the scenes story is that Mr. Rankin has been trying to convince Monroe Bank not to close its Winchester St. branch. Historically, though, the bank probably doesn't have a lot of minority loans in it's portfolio. The inconsistency here is where has Mr. Rankin been. The bank's only about 150 years old. When the economy goes into can, he starts complaining? Was he complaining five years ago? Or is his dissatisfaction part of an effort to embarrass the bank because he's getting nowhere with them about the Winchester closing.

At the city meeting, Mark Ferris also tricked the attorney into admitting that it was impractical to have 100 different prayers by asking to say an atheist prayer. They let him say the prayer -- which was pretty pointed and pretty offensive if your pretty sure you're going to some great reward (none of THOSE PEOPLE read and post on this blog, of course). The inconsistancy pointed out to me by someone who was at the meeting is that Ferris says the pledge of allegiance -- you know -- that national loyalty oath that includes the phrase "under God." What's up with that, Mark?
Not to say I don't agree with him on the prayer. I'm all for prayer, but a moment of silence might be better. Then everybody can pray to his or her god, pray for rain, or pray the meeting is real short.

Another way to save money

Before anyone jumps all over me, let me say that Councilman Beneteau's idea to decriminalize bicycling on downtown sidewalks is a great idea. I'm behind this 100% and it was ridiculous in the first place to ban bicyclists (or any people) from your downtown area.
However, before we get all lathered about putting stripes on sidewalks and putting up fancy bikeracks, let's just forget this whole issue came up.
Why?
Because my observation is that no one really follows the hokey law anyway. If the city charged every biker or skateboarder who used downtown city sidewalks $1, the city's financial crisis would be over.
The police don't enforce the stupid law unless someone complains about it.
If businesses want bike racks in front of their places, let them have at it.
But at this point, the less said the better. Quietly take down the signs that ban the activity, let life continue the way it is and if there's a horrible bike-pedestrian accident that has blood flowing in the streets, let the victim's family sue the reckless biker/skateboarder.
On second thought, let the signs stay up to cover the city's liability and then enforce the law the way it's been enforced (wink, wink).
For once, the do-nothing option makes the most sense.