At the July 15th Longmont City Council Meeting, my wife got up to speak at Public Invited To Be Heard. She spoke about our organization Vote! Longmont and all the work she put into setting up for Rhythm on the River. It was substantial, trust me. She created a voting booth out of a recycled refrigerator box obtained from a local business. She coordinated our location at the event. She arranged my John Adams costume. She worked long hours making hundreds of bookmarks with our site name on one side, and fun election links for kids on the other. She made up copies of literature about election and registration deadlines, current school board issues, info on local businesses to encourage local shopping, and the "meet your council member" fliers. There was NO partisan literature, unless you consider a book by the League of Women Voters and a copy of the U.S.Constitution by the Cato Institute overtly partisan.

I could care less what a classless buffoon says or thinks about me. I deal with them all the time, no sweat off my back. But Mr. McCoy took it beyond just me with the following: He came up to our booth, and as I saw him formulating his zinger, I put out a hand and offered him one of our Vote! Longmont bookmarks. He said " I wouldn't take any of your garbage" and quickly walked away. My 12 year old son was sitting right next to me, actually closer to where Mr. McCoy was when he said this. He insulted all the work my wife put in to this project (we are a team) and showed no respect for the fact that my minor son was right there.

I mostly laughed it off, but my family was furious. As much as I tried to talk my wife out of it, she dealt it out to Mr. McCoy to the point where he responded immediately, something you don't often see at council meetings. Here were his pearls of wisdom:

" Well, I'm just gonna address that real quickly and the issue was is that it wasn't just all that, so folks out there the public understand. It was also a blog from a cons..uhh cards from her husbands conservative blog that was uh being handed out there too. And uh a lot of other things. And what we don't know is uh what was actually said to every one of those parents about what uh each of us as councilmembers stand for in her husband's perspective. So, I would just like that to go on the record as well."

Some people just don't know when to stop when they're way behind. Notice he didn't deny saying it, again, in front of our son? But let's go through the myths and lies one at a time:

MYTH/LIE #1: My cards weren't being handed out. My cards were off to the side and were only handed out or even mentioned if someone asked. It wasn't our main focus. He wasn't standing in front of those cards anyway.

MYTH/LIE #2: " Conservative" blog. I cover Longmont issues. Last I checked city council is supposed to be non-partisan, we shouldn't even know their party affiliation. Apparently, Mr. McCoy showed his poorly played hand here with his obvious disdain for " conservatives". I'll remind people that this very issue is being taken on by the Election Reform Committee. I don't care how people label me as I've been called a right and left wing whack job. But recently, I've been told I wasn't a conservative, by a couple of non-conservatives! Nice try.

Also, our Vote Longmont website rotates ads from both parties. Quite often, a Jared Polis ad appears, is he a conservative? (Answer: no)

MYTH/LIE #3: " And a lot of other things", yes, those other things were the above mentioned not even close to partisan literature, including info on Mr. McCoy's current council.

MYTH/LIE #4:Speculation and assumptions of what we were telling parents who came up to us. You know, I'm called a lot of things, stupid isn't usually one of them. It would be public suicide for me to show a lick of partisanship in a large visibility venue like this with this voter registration drive. I would be taken to task for time immemorial. Not to mention we were told by the organizers that we couldn't be partisan anyway. So is Mr. McCoy alleging we broke the rules of Rhythm On The River based on a guess? A totally unfounded accusation.

Hate to burst any councilmembers egos, but people don't know who you are for the most part. What some know, they hear or read from the Times-Call (if they receive it) and bloggers like me. Mr. McCoy intimated I slandered him or others on council. Again, a guess. And an untrue one. Like I'm going to have THEIR "meet your councilmembers" literature and rip on them IN FRONT OF KIDS! Who would do such a thing in front of kids? Oops, well, I wouldn't.

We've been on the front page of the Times-Call with this voter registration drive saying we would register anyone, party doesn't matter. So he's calling us liars there, too. When kids asked how they should vote, we never steered them in any direction. We had no partisan literature. I was in costume as a President whose party was neither Republican nor Democratic.

Here's the best part and further proof of his complete lack of any foundation for his ridiculous comments: Yes, we registered several voters - NONE REGISTERED REPUBLICAN! Woops, there goes that partisan idea. And that mock election we had? We had 172 votes, OBAMA WON BY A 2-1 MARGIN!Woops, there goes another preconceived notion. We even posted the results on our website that night! If my " perspective" was on display that day, I must not very convincing and his anti-conservative (apparently) leanings have nothing to worry about.

Later on, Mr. McCoy hinted our organization was not " legitimate".This borders on slander. I'll remind him we were certified by the Colorado Secretary of State. We could, by the way, be as partisan as we like, many voter registration drives are, we chose not to be. But how are we any less legitimate than any other group in attendance at this event?

He then, as an " educator", asked the City Manager to look into not allowing groups like ours to ever return to a city sponsored event. But since he brought this up, there was a group that was roaming the event with clipboards trying to register voters, and they were overtly partisan. They had no booth and probably were not registered with the event organizers. Were they a "legitimate" voter registration drive? I'm sure Mr. McCoy will dig deep into this.

At this point I'd like to thank the City of Longmont for sponsoring this event and assigning us a great location, too! We were asked to be located there and provide an activity for the area.

Then as if right on cue the near weekly name-calling commenced, this time he accused us of " phony patriotism". Very nice. People in Ward 3 should really be proud.

One of his fawning apologists said to Mr. McCoy that the " politics of personal destruction" are here in Longmont, or some laughable nonsense. But in a way she was right, for once, perhaps it is. In the person of Mr. McCoy and his ilk in this city.

Lastly, Mr. McCoy tried to deflect the blame for the mere mention of the poor returns of the City Survey. Take a look at your words and actions, Mr. McCoy, and you'll find part of the reason. We respect the members of council and the time they put in. I've even complimented Mr. McCoy from time to time on my podcast. But I will call officials out and hold them accountable as I always have. Mr. McCoy words and actions disgrace the office he was elected to.

©2008 Chris Rodriguez/Longmont Advocate LLC
(Chris Rodriguez is a Longmont resident, and the publisher and broadcaster of Longmont Advocate, a community website and podcast that raises local issues to increase public awareness and interest)