HAKs Pointless And Wasteful “War Of Attrition”

Below is a copy of my speech from Thursday's City Council Meeting. What a meeting. I have not seen displays like the ones from HAKs members in a long while at City Hall.

Here is a link to the video of the meeting:

http://www.incitynews.com/stlc-kirkwood-/council-meetings/index.php

I can not wait to present over the next few postings the information that HAK presented for:

Why these surrogate citizens are once again singling out and targeting our community?

Why these surrogate citizens continue to abuse our citizen initiative process with their outside agenda?

What are the next possibilities for their “duke it out” battles to be done under the ruse of “public health” and “protecting the health of the worker” in Kirkwood?


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Tonight I ask our City Council to take no action on the HAK proposal that is before you. You have that option provided to you by our City Charter.

Why …

Very simply from its inception in 2006 this smoking ban issue has never been a Kirkwood issue. It was forced on our community via the Citizens Initiative Petition process by surrogate citizens working for outside forces.

In the words of their own leader Pat Lindsey, Director of Tobacco-Free Missouri, these folks came to our community – with those surrogate citizens in tow – for a political battle. They were going to "duke it out" against our supposedly "stubborn" City Council and our supposedly "stubborn" business community. They threw everything they could at our community. They set the agenda. They had the billboard advertising. They had the outside campaign workers.

Who could stop them?

Yet, they forgot about one thing – the good citizens of Kirkwood.

The citizens persevered, spoke and said “NO.”

HAK lost. It was time to move on.

But, now with HAKs rehashed proposal it is clear all these folks no longer want just a political “duke it out” battle anymore. They do not want to work with the citizens of our community. This time they want more.

They want a pointless and wasteful “war of attrition” against our City Council, against our business community and .... now against all the good citizens of Kirkwood who did the right thing for their community and stood up against them in 2006.

How many more times City Council? How many more times?

Please take no action on HAKs proposal. Please send a clear message they will not run rough-shod over our community once again.

But, most importantly … give the citizens of Kirkwood the possibility of a real say in the Citizens Initiative Petition process.

The Choose Kirkwood – Informed Health Choice proposal gives the citizens of our entire community – against smoking or not – a choice:

- A choice for a common-sense approach to the issue of smoking bans.
- A choice for private citizens to make their own health decisions
- A choice for private business owners to make their own business plans

This time around the citizens need you to stand up for our rights to have a choice on this issue. We ask you to Choose Kirkwood.

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I continue to urge the members of HAK to withdraw their pointless and wasteful petition. Sit down at a table of community dialogue with our City Council and other interested parties to resolve this issue within our community.

Save the community the tax dollars they are demanding to be spent by forcing a vote with the citizen initiative process. HAK already spent over $10,000 of our tax dollars on their issue of a smoking ban for the voters of Kirkwood to decide in 2006.

The HAK folks in 2006 stacked the deck against our entire community. HAK got caught at it with their billboards and their outside campaign workers for their supposedly "Kirkwood issue." HAK did not withdraw their petition like they easily could have. No, the members of HAK arrogantly played their hand as surrogate citizens for numerous outside groups.

HAK was dealt a defeat by the voters. They said "NO."

Now HAK is screaming “Do Over!”

How is that fair to our entire community?


What is your take? Please post at the "Comments" button below.

Your Opportunity To Be Heard - Thursday's City Council Meeting

Hello Folks,

I hope you will come to this Thursday's City Council Meeting (7pm at City Hall) and speak out against the rehashed smoking ban being proposed by the members of Healthy Air for Kirkwood (HAK). HAK can easily withdraw their petition and not put our community through another contentious battle over a smoking ban like they did in 2006.

I want to remind you of a few facts:

The core members of HAK are the same core members of Citizens for a Smoke Free Kirkwood (CSFK). CSFK was the surrogate citizen group for numerous state-wide, anti-smoking groups that tried to force a dictatorial smoking ban on our community in 2006 via the citizens' intitiative process. The voters of Kirkwood rejected that plan.

Here is what Pat Lindsey, the Director of Tobacco Free Missouri said in the Webster-Kirkwood Times Mailbag regarding the November 2006 smoking ban proposition. Keep in mind Ms. Lindsey's group spent thousands of dollars paying for FOUR different billboards supporting CSFKs smoke free agenda. Here is that letter (my bold added):

Smoke Free Is “No Brainer”

Citizens for a Smoke Free Kirkwood should be commended for doing what the St. Louis County Council failed to do. They are taking the issue of clean indoor air and smoke-free workplaces to the voters in November.

The St. Louis County Council could have helped these advocates and the residents of the other 92 municipalities by putting one smoke-free ordinance on the November ballot. Instead, concerned citizens in each municipality will have to duke it out with stubborn legislators and business people who have been convinced revenues will decrease if businesses are smoke free.

Why are people fighting for the right to pollute the air? This issue is a no-brainer. Everyone has the right to breathe clean air and legislators have the duty to insure that right. The solution is simple. Smokers can take their toxic pollutants outside and everyone will be able to breathe a lot easier inside.

Pat Lindsey
Florissant
August 24, 2006

Link to Mailbag letter: http://www.websterkirkwoodtimes.com/Letters-2669.113117_Smoke_Free_Is_No_Brainer.html

Two things Ms. Lindsey forgot to tell you in her letter was that she wasted your tax dollars paying for a vote so she could "duke it out" with you and your community over her issue. The members of CSFK-HAK tried to run roughshod over our community with outside support like this and more.

Now they are back to rehash their wasteful and pointless political battle. It is time for the members of CSFK-HAK to quit pushing their outside agenda on our community. It is time for them to sit down along with our City Council and other interested parties to work out a proposal that works for our entire community.

I hope you will urge the members of CSFK-HAK to with work with our entire community on Thursday night at the City Council meeting. The meeting starts at 7pm, so arrive early to get a seat and fill out a comment card.

Have a great day!
Joe

Public Challenge To Franklin McCallie

Here is my speech to the City Council tonight. In it I publicly challenge HAK committee member Franklin McCallie to do what he has proclaimed he has wanted in Kirkwood for so many years.

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Tonight I wish to talk about the one key element that has been missing in Kirkwood when it comes to the two smoking ban proposals we have faced and are facing. It is the core aspect of the word “community” that was ignored in 2006 by the proponents of the smoking ban, which lead to their proposal’s defeat by Kirkwood’s voters. This core aspect of “community” has once again been ignored by Healthy Air for Kirkwood (HAK) as they try to force a rehashed smoking ban on all of Kirkwood.

The One Key Element Missing – The Core Aspect Ignored – Is Dialogue.

I find this fact interesting when I review the list of HAK committee members. The new list is not much different than the list of residents that forced the 2006 proposal on our community. What is most surprising is the one name that shows up on each list. Both lists contain the name of our publicity seeking former Kirkwood High School Principal, Franklin McCallie.

Who can forget Franklin’s various calls for community “dialogue” about issues over the years? Who can forget his whirlwind publicity tour after the City Hall tragedy where he was referred to by an adoring local press with such glowing statements as the, “Lincolnesque ... self-appointed … liberal conscience of a conservative community” (St. Louis Magazine, May, 2008). As a founding member of CFUH he was the community activist “promoting respect, acceptance, and reconciliation among all citizens in our Kirkwood community through reflective dialogue.” Franklin has constantly proclaimed to the media over the years how our community needs “dialogue” to solve issues.

Yet, in 2006 there was no “dialogue” offered for our community by Franklin and his cohorts with their dictatorial smoking ban. They had the help of numerous State-wide anti-smoking groups with lots of money for advertising and lots of campaign workers from around the state to force their “duke it out” battle on Kirkwood. Even after stacking the deck against our entire community in this manner, Franklin and his cohorts still lost with their uncontested 2006 proposal.

Here we are less than 3 years later and Franklin and his cohorts are forcing another dictatorial smoking ban on our entire community. This time their proposal will be contested by the citizens of Choose Kirkwood and their proposal. We are working to engage all interested parties in Kirkwood in the process.

Franklin’s pattern is demand – Dialogue, Dialogue, Dialogue … Except – where it does not suit him.

I have twice privately reached out to Franklin for dialogue on this issue and was rejected. On Saturday, as HAKs event crumbled before them, with no one showing up for their big kick-off, I privately went up to HAK President, Mary Murphy-Overmann and asked for dialogue on this issue and was rejected.

From Franklin’s private rejections it is clear, his very public proclamations that dialogue is how we need to resolve issues in our community were just empty, hollow words – just sound bites – for consumption and regurgitation by the press. It seems dialogue is only for certain issues in Kirkwood, but definitely not the dictatorial proposals Franklin and his cohorts want to force on our entire community.

Tonight, I publicly challenge Franklin to live up the press he has created about himself. I challenge him to act like the image of the “Lincolnesque ... self-appointed … liberal conscience of our conservative community” he has fashioned. I challenge him to put his smoking ban issue where his mouth has been for so long – sit down with other interested parties to find a solution from our community – for our community. I challenge him to lay aside his monologue and prove dialogue is the way to resolve issues in Kirkwood.

I have since June 4th tried to keep our community from having to unnecessarily waste time, energy and ever tightened financial resources on another pointless, political battle over the smoking ban issue. I hope you, our City Council, will work with the members of Choose Kirkwood and other interested parties to provide our community the dialogue Franklin has proclaimed he has wanted for so many years.

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I can only hope Franklin and the rest of HAK will decide to work with the rest of Kirkwood and come to a solution - from our community - for our community.

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