Anyone catch the "talking out of both sides of his mouth" example given by Sean McCoy at the 1/29/08 Longmont City Council Meeting? On one hand he said " we have to be very careful as council members here not to say things that smack about our sister city of Boulder". Hmm, okay, fair enough, setting some ground rules for council members. But of course that's not what he was really saying, follow along.

You can view it at www.wrongmont.com or YouTube at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEo7ZF3eKYU

He went on to say he's " kinda get a little tired of that", of what? Council members talking smack about Boulder? Who does he mean? In the next breath he says exactly what he really means: " the lunatic fringe has kinda taken it upon themselves to use that as a divisive and in a way of separating out the community". He then went on to describe the " symbionic" relationship between the two cities. So the message is we must bow to the altar that is Boulder and we need to " give that respect to them". If not, you're part of the " lunatic fringe". Count me in!

By my count, this is at least the second time Councilmember McCoy has directly insulted a large chunk of Longmont residents. The first was insulting supporters of Lifebridge and his ridiculous theory of how 600% of Longmont was against the annexation. Alright, then how does he explain the paltry 31% who voted for Richard Juday, one of the anti-Lifebridge annexation leaders? Only off by 569% there. And those 6,000 signatures he spoke of, odd how only 4,338 voted for Juday, isn't it? I thought we had a strong message by the petition? I always thought that was a sham, and the election partially proved it.

It's not hard to jump to the conclusion that had the Lifebridge annexation remained on the ballot it would've been very close. I believe some members of council and the general public got an incorrect reading of the overall public's mood towards "change" and the Lifebridge issue based on November's election. I also believe Lifebridge read a little too much into it and based their decision to pull out of the process based on it. But that's just my guess. Juday's supporters can't tell me they weren't surprised that he didn't get more of the anti-annexation petition signer's votes, or the Levison vote from November.

How does this relate to Councilmember McCoy and his repeated insulting behavior? While he was one of the few that actually got a majority in the November election, and maybe thinks he has some political capital to spend (by attacking opponents), he needs to take a harder look at what just happened in the special election. He appears to not be very observant or see warning signs when in that very same council meeting two people got up in Public Invited To Be Heard and tore into Councilmember Benker for basically doing the same thing in a previous meeting. Yet he did it anyway.

The main problem I see is the poor example he's leading, especially to his often abrasive supporters. If it's alright for him to behave that way, what's to say his less, hmm how to put this, diplomatic followers won't be emboldened to really cross the line?

©2008 Chris Rodriguez/Wrongmont.Com
(Chris Rodriguez is a Longmont resident, and the editor and publisher of Wrongmont.Com, a community website that raises local issues to increase public awareness and interest)