McIntosh Mirror: Reflecting news in the Tosh

Want to impact your community? Many of McIntosh's citizen boards have open seats and a council at a loss as to how to fill them.

Light-up McIntosh December 15

Light-up McIntosh will begin at the Civic Center at 6:30 p.m. The event will host Santa Clause and an area choir from six local churches will sing.

06.30.06 -- PUBLIC RECORD: "Raise your right hands... "

I get a lot of questions about the workshop meeting from February 25, 2006.

The questions I heard in the week following the meeting were about which residents the council had dubbed "troublemakers." They named names. They chose six troublemakers who were causing all the problems in town.

The other question I get is, did Jim Strange ask other council members to raise their right hands and agree nothing should leave the room.

Yes, he did.

I am attaching a link to a windows media file of a digital recording I made when I went to this meeting. It was supposed to be a public meeting but my understanding was that people were urged not to come. I've written about this meeting in the Sunshine stories. The audio recording was made in a noticed meeting where minutes were not recorded by the town until asked for the next week by several people in town, including myself.

I pulled out the pertinent recording because people ask for the whole 5 hours and they really want to just hear this.

Transcript begins with a discussion about charging the Lion's Club to use the Civic Center and how much they can charge for various things because they use heat, cooling, papertowels.

Susan Phillips: That's opening a can of worms.
Joe Phillips: A lot this is probably going to open a can of worms but...
Jim Strange: I think it's discussion right now.
Joe Phillips: Yeah. Yeah.
Jim Strange: Nothing really should go out of this room. OK, guys?
Danaya Wright: Right.
Jim Strange: Really. Raise your right hands, we're just brainstorming here.
Susan Phillips: (To Frank Ciotti) You didn't raise your hand.
Many: Laughter.
Frank Ciotti: I don't even talk to my wife... (garbled...)

***

Have a listen and decide for yourself: "Raise your right hand ..." (Windows Media File, download 473kb)

I hope to post all of the workshop meetings eventually.

posted by Cher @ 5:36 PM,

2 Comments:

At   July 02, 2006 9:18 PM     ,    Anonymous Anonymous    said...

Hi Cher:

I hear you have been a blessing in reporting the truth of what you hear. Thank God you have the courage to stand up for truth. My dad lives hear in Mc Intosh and doesn't attend any of the meeting because of illness but he has told me stories of the people who run this town for many of years and noone says anything to them. I hear they do as they please, and that doesn't seem right to me. I hear a whole lot goes on behind close doors, and its been going on for a very long time and its about time this town is exposed for its practices. I hope you will continue to keep exposing these scums and maybe it will hit the news about there back door practices.

GOOD JOB!!!!

 
At   July 05, 2006 1:17 PM     ,    Anonymous Anonymous    said...

I lived in McIntosh for 21 years before moving further south, and I still have a lot of family living there, whom I visit often. I have read this blog and spoken with many of the town residents about these conflicts. There are no words to describe how disappointed I am in the residents of my home town. I once was proud to say that I was from McIntosh; however, now I am ashamed to be associated with this poor excuse of a "quaint historic town." As a woman born and bred in the south, I have one question for the residents who have compromised themeselves for the sake of power and control: "Didn't your mothers raise you better than this?" All towns have problems, but this is ridiculous. It appears to me that many of the council members have nothing better to do than try to be "big fish in a little pond." Holding power and control over the residents of this town does not make you a great person; in fact, it makes you a very small person. To the council members who refuse to represent the best interests of McIntosh residents, and instead strive toward their own agenda, I say For Shame! You are an embarrassment to me and everyone who lives or has lived in McItosh, FL. It's time to grow up and quit this childish behavior of bullying, secretiveness, and pettiness. I have to wonder if the council members have been to church lately, because they clearly are not behaving as such. Maybe a visit to one of our local churches is in order, along with a visit to the altar to pray, repent, and seek guidance. I know that I will be praying for peace and unity. I hope you will, too.

 

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Editor

Editor and Publisher:

I'm Cher From McIntosh, FL I'm a graduate student at the University of Florida working on a master's degree in Mass Communication. While I was finishing my undergrad degree in journalism last year, I reported on McIntosh, Fla. for an in-depth reporting class. I figured that the reporting and the public record files should go somewhere people can access them. Reporters don't report to keep the information they find to themselves. Some of that reporting is included here in a forum that allows response. McIntosh suffers because with no news coverage, the local government and the rumor mill have too much potential to run rampant over residents. I moved to McIntosh in the fall of 1999. My profile

About This Blog

The primary purpose of this blog is to accurately reflect what happens in town public meetings and dispel rumors. I record the meetings and make them available for download. One of the goals of this blog is to offer residents a place to voice opinions. The comments, views and opinions expressed there are not necessarily those of the editor.

 
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"A Popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." - James Madison, 1822

"Personal journalism is also not a new invention. People have been stirring the pot since before the nation’s founding; one of the most prominent in America’s early history was Ben Franklin, whose Pennsylvania Gazette was civic-minded and occasionally controversial." - Dan Gillmor, 2004, We the Media

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