Last Wednesday night at the Special Meeting of the McKinney City Council, the Censure of La’Shadion Shemwell ended with a pleasant surprise. The public spoke, followed by individual Councilmembers speaking, saving Mr. Shemwell for last. I thought the monologues were more scrambled eggs than insight until the very end. Councilman Shemwell made the motion to approve his own censure. It was better than the ending I was hoping for as explained in my last blog. Like a professional, statesman and gentleman, he let his fellow Councilmembers off the hook.
But that wasn’t the biggest takeaway from the evening. Mayor Fuller was making notes of the public speakers’ comments. Then he led off the council comments with a response. He made a point of the way many people brought forth complaints to the City Council, including an illustration of how one of his closest friends and campaign volunteers had claimed an incident occurred. It was also recorded. The Mayor was quite blunt. The video provided a rebuttal of the events told to him by a trusted friend. The event didn’t happen the way he was told. The Mayor stopped short of saying the friend was a bald-faced liar. He didn’t need to. We all got the point.
One very articulate woman made the claim that the City had done nothing to improve race relations since the ugly pool party incident three years ago. The Mayor rebutted that her statement couldn’t be further from the truth. He then enumerated the things the City had put in place. Another equally impressive speaker from the delivery standpoint asserted that if the Council thought Mr. Shemwell had done wrong, then just wait, he was going to reveal the very next day the number of shady deals that had occurred by past and current Councilmembers. The Mayor didn’t flinch. He all but deputized the speaker to bring those charges forth and said it was his duty to reveal such actions. Again, put up or shut up!
The Warning Shot for Future Speakers
It happens all the time and not just in McKinney. Speakers get up to register a complaint. Then to authenticate their assertion, they make an outlandish statement. “My taxes have doubled in the last three years!” Whoa! Hold it right there. Is that a true statement? I doubt it. The good thing is that the facts are obtainable. And should be. That would not be a smart move with the McKinney City Council. Most people of reasonable intelligence know when a story has been embellished. You will get nailed here.
In most cases the staff is obligated to check into assertions and complaints made by the public. Can you imagine the hours spent researching faulty statements? Not a problem if the claim is true and something needs to be done to rectify the findings. Most of the time, the Council is informed that the claim was in error with the facts documented made available to them.
I would like to see a follow-on report made public, just as the false or embellished claim was made public. Especially when made to feed an anti-government audience.
Stay on Track
Oh my gosh, watch the video of last Wednesday’s meeting. Some of the speakers started on one path and then veered off like one of those crazy race car video games. The facts in this meeting are very clear and simple to enumerate. But somehow some speakers wanted to throw in stories and extraneous information that would have rendered the Council playing Whack-a-Mole if they had tried to respond. Even Mr. Shemwell’s mother made a passionate statement that took us back to his childhood, one of terror and extreme odds to overcome. I was touched. There was only one problem. It had nothing to do with Mr. Shemwell speeding, refusing to sign a ticket and then getting arrested.
Anecdotal Evidence
One of the speakers I mentioned started her comments by yelling out that McKinney has a racial problem. If so, then let’s dig into it and prove or disprove her assertion. What I do know is that all 180,000 people in McKinney have seen or experienced a problem of some kind. We could all stand up and say McKinney has a pothole problem, a high-weed problem, a junk car problem, a leaning street sign problem or a littering problem. And I don’t want to downplay any of these. But there is a big difference between anecdotal evidence and a widespread problem.
There is also a distinction that needs to be made between now and the past. If McKinney had a racial problem a decade ago and has made great strides to address and correct the problem, where do we get credit for the improvement? Almost any statement about anything the City tries to fix is tempered with an obligatory comment: But we have room to improve, and we won’t be satisfied until we are better than we are now. Professional city management and good governance will never be able to sit on its laurels.
Then comes a companion issue. Let’s not be bashful when it comes to cost. On some things, response time and capacity are realities. If we were to fix every single pothole the instant it is spotted, and I’m talking 100%, that could be possible. But it would be an exorbitant expense, meaning taxes would have to be raised to pay for it.
If every ounce of our energy was spent to eliminate even a tinge of racism, that would be a different issue where the cost is more than just dollars. And dollars wouldn’t be the solution. Hey, I would like that. I bought in to every word the Chicago Bishop said at the recent Royal Wedding. Did you?
I thought it was interesting at last Wednesday’s meeting that a couple of white speakers used anecdotal evidence to make a point about racism. They have a friend or someone important in their life who is black. Yeah, that won’t cut it either. It works both ways. Alone, that doesn’t prove or disprove racism.
But where is the evidence that McKinney has a racial problem? I haven’t looked at the government required police racial profiling report where there is more than anecdotal evidence revealed. Yes, I know not one single piece of information would tell the entire story.
So, how do you prove McKinney has a racial problem? Or, how do you prove that McKinney does not have a racial problem?
And just exactly where and how is it manifested? And if it is rampant, point that out to me. And if existed but is improving, where would I find the people standing up to say it’s better or, someday, almost non-existent?
A Recommended Requirement
The Mayor reads a statement at the beginning of each meeting that basically enacts a decorum mandate for speakers and the audience, such as to address the entire Council and not single out an individual person.
I think he should add a similar note ahead of the Public Comments portion of Council meetings:
“We are genuinely interested in public comments. You are being asked to identify yourself and to provide contact information on your speaker’s card. We also want you to know that in almost all cases we will seek to answer your question or respond to your need. Please be factual and accurate with any assertions you make regarding your situation. We do not want to embarrass you or put anybody on the spot. However, as your comments are public, we will make our responses to you public at a later date. Thank you for assisting in the decorum of these chambers.”
Let's Talk About It, Lewis! 