For months, Elizabeth Reed has showed up at City Hall to address City Council members during the citizen discussion portion of their formal meetings.
Time and time again, Reed expresses concerns about smoking in subsidized housing for seniors.
Reed’s mother lives at Senior Heritage Plaza, a low-income housing apartment complex for the elderly, and is apparently surrounded by neighbors who smoke.
Reed wants a smoke-free building for her mother.
“It’s assault and battery to stick them in a building with profuse second-hand smoke,” Reed told the council recently, referring to people with respiratory problems.
The city has looked into her concerns.
Council Administrator Aimee Cox has spent countless hours, between phone calls and emails, trying to rectify the situation.
Even Mayor Steve Bach’s chief of staff, Laura Neumann, got involved at one point.
Reed has been told that it’s a matter under the purview of the Housing Authority, which has tried to appease Reed, officials say.
But Reed isn’t satisfied and continues to show up at City Hall.
Reed went before council again Tuesday.
“Happy New Year to you all,” Reed said. “I”m here talking about the same thing. I’m sorry that I came back. I know that you didn’t want to see me.”
If only you knew, Ms. Reed.
When council President Scott Hente called Reed up to speak, Councilman Bernie Herpin made a remark under his breath.
A live microphone recorded what he said.
“When are we going to tell her to stop coming here?” Herpin remarked.
To listen for yourself, click here. Reed starts talking at about minute 48.
Herpin did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Not surprised. This guy friends people who sell exotic large cats to private parties… read gangsters, thugs, and rich people with low self-esteem. Herpin, show us some class.
Ole bernie nees to spend some time in Wal-mart on Murry and Platte. Maybe he will learn some manners thier. When are these people going to lear to keep thier pie-hole shut.. Romney and his 48 percent comment all over again.
Housing should have a non-smoking building foe people who are non smokers.lilithia
The only honorable thing to do is resign.
Have some integrity Bernie and resign.
Really? Resign over that? Give me a break!
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I have to agree with you Mike, resign over that comment? Are you kidding me? If we ask for resignation for that, can we ask for resignation for, “we’ll tell you whats in the bill after we pass it.” And that was almost 3 years ago, and we still don’t know whats in it.
So he said what he was thinking. Hot mic or not, he has a right to voice his opinion even if you don’t like it.
maybe al they need to do is to their job and solve the problem – create a smoke free environment in public spaces of the public housing…maybe if after months they could do their job, then she’d stop showing up
Herpin told me his opinion in an unsolicited email to me a long time ago. His opinion is very different from mine. He talked about “smoking” being the only pleasure some people had. I think I did a pretty good job expressing my view in an email in response to his. Based on that email (of his), I am not suprised or concerned with his comment. I really don’t care.
When I said, “I know some of you don’t want me here”, I meant that, -’Some of you may not prefer the public being aware of just what it is that you don’t care enough to sign a letter of support about”. I am not trying to be confrontational, but -that- is what I was getting at. And that, . .I think is significant. I believe -some- -have- cared, some care -now-, and some -will- care.
I am not the best speaker, and sometimes I forget a word, like “The Mayor did not even -suspend disbelief- when Laura Neumann informed him that he had no power over Housing Authority, so it seemed staged that he express desire for writing his own letter of support, and then, w/o a second’s-pause defers to her informing him of the parameters of his job”. I’m sure he knows what he can and cannot do, . .and, nothing stops him from writing or signing a letter of support from a personal standpoint, advised by his own personal ethics. In this case, . .I couldn’t remember the term: “suspend disbelief”, so I paused a long time, and said “Mayor wasn’t even -incredulous-”, because that I could think of. Perhaps council members thought I was holding back tears or emotion, . .I just couldn’t think of the term. A lot of times, when I pause and look frustrated, it’s just because I can’t think of a word, or remember where I was going with something. For the most part, I think I am a decent speaker. And, I guess that’s why they only have to listen to people 3 min.s, just in case they are -not- good speakers, or for -whatever- reason.
I guess if everyone talked about what they wanted to hear, speakers/citizens would be given 5 min.s. That’s what I’ve told myself, . .nervous as I am, . .but wanting to do what’s right for my mom, that, ‘I only have to talk for 3 minutes, . so, let’s do our best ..Beth’ ‘Let’s make it meaningful’ ‘Let’s make it so when we look back on it, we don’t regret it’ So far, I don’t regret much of anything I’ve said. I -do- regret things I’ve forgotten to say, and/or things I said that were not clear perhaps.
I do regret saying, “I hate those of you who are smirking right now while I’m talking”. I didn’t want to single Brandy W. out. It was only her, and I’ve got to get used to the fact that some people will be thinking about something else while you are talking, and will smirk. It was unfortunate that the first time, it was when I was talking of the smoke’s deterioration of my mom’s health. But, . .fortunately, I have seen this while others are talking, . .since then, . .and I’ve grown a little personally from this. Everyone do what you want with your faces. I’m gonna be alright.
Gotta go now. Out of time.
PS. I just found this site yesterday. Thank you for it Daniel. I may talk to you later. I still am getting over some pretty gross inaccuracies from an Andy Koen piece, and waiting to see them corrected and re-ran, . .so, I am afraid of anything similiar. It wearies a person, and hurts. Ex. “HA offered (Rose) Reed an apt. away from the smokers, and she refused it” . . What? Why would I have called you then, KOAA, and why would we have 6 people out here rallying if the problem was -SOLVED- ?! It’s -one- thing to take HA at face value, for their word, . .but it’s another when it doesn’t even make sense in the context of the story.
Thanks for this again Daniel. I feel better already. Going to go for a freezing walk in the cold, for the health of my heart that has started paining me this last year since spending too much time at my mother’s.
Why -wouldn’t- members want to sign a measly Letter of Support? It seems kind of (?) uninformed and un-imaginable, so, I was, and I will be, there to inform them. I give them more credit than to actually be OK with this going on in the community. I must not be reaching them.