This is serious

Curmudgeon watched the citizens forum from the April 3 Copperas Cove city council meeting.

Very, very interesting. 

This is serious, gentlemen. We have a problem.

No rehashing here, but let me ask a few questions of our seated councilmen, to all of them.

Is this true? If it’s nothing, please explain yourselves so we can all get on with the business of Copperas Cove.

(Whose business IS Copperas Cove? Why, it’s ALL of our business, thank you very much.)

Or, will you do the passive-aggressive thing and roll over and say nothing except go around discussing it with everyone EXCEPT the general voting public?

Namely, discussing it with your fellow Good Old Boys Club members in the general populace who are just as gobsmacked as you are that someone DARE call you out in open forum.

This is what government is all about, gentlemen, the right of the people to call out their government officials.

At the end of the meeting, one of you asks to discuss this issue – Mr. James Pierce, Jr.

Or is it an issue?

First, Mr. Dan Yancey.

What did you do? Nothing?

Is Mr. Russell lying or making this up as he goes along? Is he splitting hairs?

What exactly happened?

If your spirit and intent (see city charter below) was not “bad’ then surely you can discuss your intentions in public.

So did you, Mr. Yancey, in fact, talk to Mr. Jefferson Davis, the City of Copperas Cove's human resources director, about a particular individual you would have wanted to see as interim city manager?

That's called cherry-pickin',  y'all, and not letting a highly skilled human resources director do his job and let the cards fall where they may.

Who was this individual and were they, indeed, less than qualified?

If "allegedly" this incident of cherry-pickin' happened at all.

Was it your job to give direction to Mr. Davis? 

Alone, on your own, Mr. Yancey? 

Or, did you NOT direct Mr. Davis at all to make sure "certain individual" had his name put into the mix?

Whose job is it to give instructions or direction to Mr. Davis regarding the selection of city employees?

Shouldn’t direction come from the dais, from the council as a whole, or at least to Mr. Davis in executive session, if there was an individual you would like to see on that “top list” of interim city manager candidates?

Is it the Wild West, where council members can meet behind closed doors with individuals all they want, and tell them or strongly suggest, they should do thus-and-such?

OH, and then there’s Mr. E. Marc Payne, who during his campaign talked about being there for the citizens, being good stewards of the citizens’ money, etc.

What did you do, Mr. Payne?

Whom did you give directions to?

Curmudgeon believes you need to come as clean as Mr. Yancey did.

This needs to be done in public forum.

Not behind closed doors, where NO ONE save the council and city administration will know the FULL STORY of what happened.

This doesn’t affect just the council, but all of us.

I CALL INTO QUESTION THE VERY TRUST WE SHOULD HAVE IN YOU ELECTED OFFICIALS.

What else are you doing, fudging over the lines of what is permissible and not?

It is very, VERY disappointing. And it needs to be fixed, dear city council.

Mayor Frank Seffrood needs to have some discussions with the City Attorney.

Otherwise, it should be RESIGN, GENTLEMEN, or be RECALLED.

Can enough Copperas Cove voters be gathered to remove these men from office?

Curmudgeon does not know.

Meanwhile, take note of the city charter, dear readers: At the bottom will be a screenshot directly of the charter online, lest you think Curmudgeon is pulling it from the nether regions of my backside:

From the Copperas Cove city charter. You can find it, in its voluminous entirety, on the city's website.

Sec. 2.08. - Prohibitions.

(a) Holding other office. Except where authorized by law, no mayor or council member shall hold any other city office or city employment during his/her term as mayor or council member, and no former mayor or council member shall hold any compensated appointive city office or city employment until two (2) years after the expiration of his/her term as mayor or council member.

(b) Continuation of city employment upon candidacy. No employee of the city shall continue in such position after becoming a candidate for an elective office.

(c) Appointments and removals. Neither the council nor any of its individual members, including the mayor, shall in any manner dictate the appointment or removal of any city administrative officer or employee whom the city manager or any of his/her subordinates are empowered to appoint, however, the council may express its views and fully and freely discuss with the city manager anything pertaining to appointment and removal of such officers and employees.

(d) Interference with administration. NEITHER THE COUNCIL NOR ITS INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS, INCLUDING THE MAYOR, SHALL GIVE ANY ORDERS OR DIRECTION, PUBLIC OR PRIVATE, TO ANY OFFICER OR EMPLOYEE WHO IS SUBJECT TO THE DIRECTION AND SUPERVISION OF THE CITY MANAGER. COUNCIL MEMBERS, INCLUDING THE MAYOR, SHALL NOT GIVE ORDERS OR DIRECTION TO THE CITY SECRETARY, CITY JUDGE, CITY ATTORNEY OR CITY MANAGER UNLESS ACTING AS A COUNCIL AS A WHOLE. This is not to preclude the council or its individual members, including the mayor, from conducting a dialog with city staff where the spirit and intent is not to interfere with the management and administration of the city. The mayor is not prohibited from performing administrative duties under a Declaration of Emergency Disaster per section 2.13 or when performing administrative duties as the Emergency Management Director per section 2.15.

(Ord. No. 2012-34, § 1, 8-14-12, approved 11-6-12)

And I haven’t even gotten into Mr. “I can’t file the right paperwork to save my life even though I’ve run for office at least three times” Charlie Youngs. Well intentioned but incompetent? Is his memory and cognitive function slipping, that he out of all the others could not follow written directions? What does that say for his ability to function on council?

Lastly, who is Curmudgeon?

(Thank you for the shout out, Mr. Russell.)

It should NOT matter in the least who Curmudgeon is.

It has been said that an anonymous blogger is not to be trusted.

But Curmudgeon is not asking for anything except for people to take a look at the simple, unvarnished, unglossed truth of what is happening with our Copperas Cove elected officials. Don’t gloss them over because they are your “friends” or are “good guys.” 

"MOMMY, THE EMPEROR IS NAKED!!"

Use a stranger’s eyes and change the names and scenarios and see what you come up with.

Peace, love, and bunnies, y’all.