Who’s Afraid of Virginia Dunn?
Are you one of those sadistic souls who love to watch people self-destruct? If so, don’t miss the re-runs of Monday night’s Salisbury City Council meeting. Most of us will find it sad. You’ll find it more entertaining than Jack Bauer torturing his girlfriend’s ex-husband.
Council President Mike Dunn came about as close to having a full blown psychotic episode as you can get, short of being hauled off in a straitjacket. I thought I had seen some pretty poor behavior in the U.S. House. Those guys don’t have anything on Mr. Dunn.
The evening started off calmly enough. The agenda was pretty non-controversial. The problems began when Councilwoman Debbie Campbell had the audacity to do the job that the voters put her in office to do. She asked questions. She attempted to enact good public policy. Shame on you Debbie!
Every time that Ms. Campbell would question an item before council, or make a comment, Mr. Dunn seemed to have a snide remark. I could give you a blow by blow, but I think that our server space would be exceeded. I don’t write well enough to give you the full flavor of the exchanges anyway. Just watch PAC-14.
Since Mike won’t allow comments by council, unless he arbitrarily chooses to, Ms. Campbell took the outrageous action of signing up for public comment as a citizen. Guess what Mr. Dunn did? He (illegally) gaveled the meeting adjourned.
Tomorrow we’ll start to tackle the substance of the meeting. Despite Mike Dunn’s obnoxious and troubling demeanor there actually was some business transacted.
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Good posting on another blog (reallifejustice):
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Moistrear said…
And the most astounding part of the saga occurred after Dunn adjourned the meeting on his own initiative when Ms. Campbell asked to make a statement during a brief public comment period at the very end. When several members of the audience expressed outrage at Dunn’s antics, he did an about face and disappeared through the door in the rear wall of the Council chambers, accompanied by Ms. Cathcart, while Comegys argued with the outraged citizens.
Shortly thereafter Dunn reappeared with an attitude as odious as the site of the City’s sewage treatment plant, yelling at certain persons, including Ms. Campbell — he got very close to her and began shaking a paper near her face while yelling “are you happy now.” She politely suggested that he was having another of the “episodes” for which he is now famous. Mr. Dunn was probably fortunate that Ms. Campbell’s husband was not present — otherwise Howdy Doody would probably be recovering from restorative dental surgery.
Dunn obviously suffers from an infantile paralysis of the cerebral cortex. In short, he’s sick.
14/2/06 00:49
I think I’ll move to Iraq, I hear their building a democracy there…
Sick? SPEED —- take a hit right before a 6:00 PM meeting and about two hours later you just have to get out of that room.
And just what were those photos of on the papers that Mikey shook in Mrs. Campbell’s face? The pictures of the illegal dumping on the river’s edge? Of Mikey in a snit at the Council table? Of the deplorable directed runoff from the zoo?
Is she happy now? No, she’s not happy, not happy at all. She’s seeing the lies and coverups that she’s had no part of come to light, is embarrassed that it’s happened in Salisbury, and is distressed to see that the city she loves is run by tyrants and bullies.
Mrs. Campbell has given every opportunity to the council to behave in an above board manner, and has attempted to lead the way on innumerable occasions, but at each one has been censured from the very start by Mr. Dunn and the mayor, closely followed by those other three. Mrs. Campbell, as the only actual representative of the citizenry of Salisbury, the only knowledgeable and forthright member of the council, and seemingly as the only one of that lot that has a soul that doesn’t need immediate saving, deserves every bit of support that the public can muster. Let’s all stand close behind her. And let’s find some big guy to stand between her and Mr. Dunn, to avert the possibility of her personal injury during his next meltdown.
I volunteer Kurt. No problem at all.