Who said our City Manager didn't have a sense of humor? After reading the DAR Sunday, I knew he did. Yes, the city does have the third lowest posted rates...but that doesn't account for the utility tax NOR the power adjustment charge as compared to other areas. Bagby: MU doesn't have to make a profit like investor-owned utilities: Becker: APRIL FOOLS!!!!! MU IS out to make money off of their citizens.
The City of Poplar Bluff, MY City, YOUR City, asked the state of Missouri to silence me today. Many countries in this world would have granted the City's request: China, Iran, Russia, to name a few. Thank God we live in the U.S.A. where freedom of speech is a right and protected by our courts. During the hearing today, the City kept stating over and over that my blogging was an attempt to "Poison The Jury Pool." The City went so far as to suggest they might not find impartial jurors and that because of my blogs they might have to consider a change of venue.
There's another hearing scheduled for Thursday at 2pm before Judge Ligons to determine whether I have free speech regarding the public hearing of my case. The motion was filed today by the city following my previous blog post. You might have to read about the outcome of that hearing from another source.
As expected and forewarned, the City came up with a new tactic today to delay the jury trial set for April 4th. We agreed to appear before the judge on April 4th and set a new date for jury trial. To top it all off, after months of attempting to schedule depositions...we had a deposition of a city employee scheduled for today. But this morning we were told that the city employee called in sick and the deposition was canceled.
This time last year we all heard rumblings of Poplar Bluff city leadership voting to deny access for private Internet providers to the citizen-owned cable system… there would be no more open access. And soon we’d all be forced to use Poplar Bluff City Cable for Internet services. At first, I was sure this wouldn’t happen. Why would our own city government take customers away from local Internet businesses? [Read Full Letter]
