What Three Words Can't You Use Together in Lisbon? --- Town Council & Respect

Lisbon Town Councils Dirty Little Tricks

I have noticed a pattern developing with respect to the way Lisbon Council attempts to manipulate the public meetings and control any dissenting views .

 May 15th Council Meeting was a good case in point.  The Councilors used character assassination as a way of directing attention away  from Mr. Fillmore's questions. What they were so ardently trying to avoid was letting the public know that the Council had screwed up.


This dirty little trick is just one of many in the Council's Arsenal. The following are a few examples  of manipulation commonly used to control the public and our ability to speak and gather the information necessary to make an educated decision.

•     When the Council has a topic that generates a lot of dissent they will intentionally use a venue that is too small in order to control the number and comfort of dissenters.

•     One of the most despicable control attempts is the use of Armed Police at or near the speaking podium.  The implications made are obvious to all.

             

•     I have seen  Councilors skillfully employ the technique  “Poisoning The Well” especially before Mr. Fillmore speaks. This is used to mitigate the effect of his message.

•     Delay , Delay and more delay:  This is one of their all time favorites. Do you remember how the council  handled the question about letting the public vote on the municipal side of the budget.   We still don’t have the vote.

   

•      Do you remember last year when the Council shut down unlimited free speech at the Council meetings?  This was done by imposing  strict rules severely limiting  public input to a couple minutes at the beginning of each meeting.  It is difficult to disagree with the Councilors it you can't speak.

       

•     Tapes of  Meetings  mysteriously disappear  when the material on the tape has the potential of embarrassing the Council.

   

•     At May 22nd meeting a new tactic emerged.  A  Councilor gave a private citizen of Lisbon an implicit threat of a law suit.   She implied that it could be considered harassment if a private citizen (Mr. Fillmore) kept bringing up that her (public official)  household was breaking the traffic laws of Lisbon.

               
     Her argument  wasn’t whether she was guilty or not, (she said that anything over 11,000 lbs. could be considered overweight) she was upset because this infraction was being brought to the public's attention.

The residents of Lisbon have a right to know the truth about local government. We should not be manipulated and treated like little children.  Please treat us with the respect due all human beings.

If you make a mistake, own it.  We don’t expect you to be infallible. And above all don’t lie to us.

Respectfully
Joe Hill 
LisbonMaine.Net