Richard Insley Chairs Hearing After He's Terminated

Let me ask you folks something. If you get fired or laid off from a job, do you then go in and keep working your job? Didn't think so, but that's what Richard Insley did, conducting a Housing Board meeting Monday as its chair many weeks after his term expired, according to the heated discussion at the Monday night city council meeting. Richard's term expired at the end of April and Mayor Ireton sent him one of those letters in early May that say "thanks but no thanks" to another term of service.

Now, the code or charter or whatever it's called says that housing board appointments are for terms of four years and made by the mayor and the council. So at the end of four years, both the mayor and the council have to agree to reappoint that person or agree on a new person, just like with a department head. The mayor already said "no" and searched for another person. Louise Smith can whine all day long about extending terms, but what about "expired" or "no" does Louise not understand? Richard was done and there was a vacancy, just like the board's rules say, so what in the heck was Richard Insley doing back in the chair's seat conducting a housing board hearing on Monday? IMHO, that's just a lawsuit waiting to happen!

Louise will now probably run to city attorney Paul Wilber to find a loophole to keep Richard in for her friends at SAPOA (whose support she'll need for re-election since she can't dupe her former supporters into giving her money again), in which she will also run up the legal bills for the city that she pretends to complain about. My bet is that Terry Cohen will have the correct legal answer after doing research and Louise will ask Paul Wilber to slam Terry and write up some mega privileged and confidential opinion that Louise won't vote to release to the public in which that will cost the taxpayers even more money!

If you need some proof of how Louise Smith supports SAPOA, look at the time SAPOA gets in public comment. A couple of SBYNews readers commented on it yesterday. The new president, Chris Adams, gets up there and gives us yet another rundown of how and when they have contacted Mayor Ireton (I'll skip the one term this time because I can appreciate how tired he is of hearing the same thing over and over). What is this, the third time in a row we've heard this? Is she going to tell us every phone call they ever have with all those people she named?

And Stu Leer, you know, I can relate to this man's frustration and I think Jim "One Term Mayor" Ireton really blew it with this Slumlord of the Week thing he is doing, targeting a property Stu has only had a short time and in which the calls were service were before his time. Big mistake, Jim, big mistake, do your homework. But this is also Stu's third time up and Louise let's him go on and on and on back, rehashing every run in he's ever had with the city. We get it, Stu, all right? But Louise will cut off my friend and contributor GA Harrison and count his last 10 seconds down -- out loud!!!! (thanks to another reader comment for reminding me of that) -- while Stu Leer is welcome to however many minutes he cares to go on.

So you've got SAPOA taking up more time than discussing $52 million in corrections to the Wastewater Treatment Plant fiasco, Richard Insley holding hearings after his term has expired and NO vote was taken to reappoint or extend him and the mayor said "no," Louise letting SAPOA get up and talk for what seems forever when she would have banged the gavel at you, me or anyone else (except good old Mr. Trader, our history man) for taking up so much time, and Louise taking off the housing board appointment and sending it to work session when that has NEVER been done before...

It all adds up, folks, it all adds up! OH, and don't FORGET! Louise Smith is putting this on the work session she knows Debbie Campbell can't attend so she can be sure this appointment doesn't move forward. If I were you people, I'd do whatever I could to get out to that work session Thursday, June 24 at 1:30 p.m. (yes, when people are working so they can't come!) and even if you can't speak, you can look at Louise Smith while they discuss this. Write or call her and tell her this is just plain unacceptable! I know people are afraid of retaliation, but man up (or woman up) because if you don't, this city is going to be flushed down that $84 million + $52 million = $136 million Wastewater Treatment Plant once and for all. If you aren't mad as hell and not going to take this any more, I don't know what to do for you. I'm doing my part and have been a long long time! But let me close with this:

Louise Smith, Richard Insley, SAPOA...you've been BLOGGED!