I was unable to attend Tuesday night’s meeting, but I read with interest the postings about how Bob Roche provoked Mr. Maxwell, so I watched the DVD from that night. I was fully prepared to corroborate what I’d read, but I’ve got to say, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Mr. Maxwell was highly unprofessional, appeared to not have the answers to basic questions about the city’s finances (like how much money do we have?) constantly interrupted city council members, and was, in my opinion, combative and a little out of control. I feel like the kid pointing out the emperor’s nudity, but what are we thinking? As residents we need to know our finances are in capable hands and that our accountant is approachable and competent. This is important stuff. I am NOT a Priscilla advocate. I didn’t even know her, but neither can I support this character who, at least at that meeting, conveyed pretty clearly his inability or unwillingness – I don’t know which – to provide monetary information necessary to keep department heads apprised of their budgetary constraints and the city finances in order.
Eager to attribute his belligerence to Mr. Roche’s provocation, I watched for that too, but I didn’t see it. I thought he (Roche) was dogged in his pursuit of answers that are germane to the city’s finances, but I did not find his questions to be anything more than that. I urge everyone to watch the DVD from that evening. I realize this is an unpopular position, but, personalities aside, facts are facts.
Update from Joseph Geierman on Nov 2, 2009:When I got home from work this evening, someone had dropped off a copy of the video Susan mentions in the post above. I’d forgotten what a pain it is to transfer these videos to the web! Anyway, because there has been a lot of discussion about it, I am putting the video online below, so you can judge for yourself what happened.
