Sorry this took so long to get up. The Worcester website does not make it easy to get video. On that note, sorry about the quality. File under “in case you missed it” wherein we join Tuesday night’s Worcester City Council meeting about 2 hours in progress (If you want to see the whole meeting, for some crazy self-abusive reason you can watch it here).

Bill Eddy Wants you to Join Council from Cara Lisa Berg Powers on Vimeo.

Bill Eddy is addressing the Council chambers on why he voted against recommending last night’s agenda item 17b to committee. Agenda item 17b reads as follows:

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RULES AND LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS Upon the Petition of Ronal Madnick, Director of the Worcester County Chapter American Civil Liberties Union of Mass., request City Council adopt a “public access” open forum, which would take place in the first 30 minutes of any council meeting and allow anyone to speak on any item of business on the agenda, regardless of its position on the agenda: recommend adoption of the accompanying Order to request the City Manager and request the City Solicitor amend the Rules of City Council to allow a “Public Access” open forum within the City Council agenda for a trial period of six months.

This motion failed, in no small part because Councilor Joff Smith seemed to be hiding out in the hallway instead of voting on the proposal (Nicole has a play by play here), which it’s worth noting was brought before Council by Ronal Madnick, who is running against Smith for the 13th Worcester State Representative seat. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I am the Press Secretary for Dr. Margot Barnet, another candidate in that race).

Another motion on the floor (17a)  from Mr. Madnick did carry. This motion ensures that petitioners be allowed to speak on items that they place on the council agenda. Anyone can place an item on the council agenda by petitioning the City Clerk’s office before 4pm on the Thursday afternoon prior to a council meeting. The votes on the two amendments regarding constituent input are as follows

17 A:

Clancy   no

Haller   no

Palmieri  no

Lukes   yes

O’Brien   yes

Eddy  no

Toomey  yes

Germain  yes

Petty  yes

Rushton  yes

Smith  absent

17b:

Clancy   no

Haller   no

Palmieri  no

Lukes   yes

O’Brien   yes

Eddy  no

Toomey  yes

Germain  yes

Petty  no

Rushton  yes

Smith  absent