Lots of bizarre things are said at City Council and never reported by the local "news"paper.
The video above chronicles one such moment.
At the end of the May 1 meeting, longtime councilman Claude Jinks gave a closing lecture on the theme of "change." Claude's lecture was apparently an attempt to justify his vote earlier in the meeting to "change" the MUC appointment process that 3,202 people put in place in the MUC referendum of 2001!
Yes, Jinks thinks it's good to "change" and overturn what 72% of voters supported in 2001! After all, why should Jinks or Senter or LeBel or Garrett or Bivens care what those 3,202 people thought!
Later in the same meeting, however, Claude opposed any "change" to the MUC Board when Claude voted to reject Mayor Thomas' EIGHTEENTH appointment to the MUC Board. Click here.
Claude was for change before he was against change.
Did Claude's lecture and the contradiction get reported? No.
Why is this self-proclaimed man of the people against "change" on the MUC Board? Well, as one person pointed out at the meeting, Claude's daughter-in-law Jackie Jinks works at MUC where George McGuffin is a THIRTY-FOUR YEAR member and chairman of the Board.
McGuffin wants to stay on the MUC Board, and it is McGuffin's seat that is up for appointment right now.
Claude, the man of the people, supports McGuffin. Claude is so devoted to McGuffin that he voted to change the appointment process that was put in place BY THE PEOPLE in a referendum in 2001. Then Claude voted over and over again for months on end to reject the Mayor's appointment of anyone except McGuffin to the MUC Board. Finally on May 1, Claude voted to change state law for McGuffin.
Claude let the people vote on the MUC appointment process in the MUC referendum in 2001, but Claude refused to let the people vote on the McGuffin Law changes to the MUC appointment process in a $250 MUC referendum in 2012.
It is one thing to support McGuffin or anyone else. It is the height of arrogance, however, for an elected official to vote to overturn a referendum in order to change state law and get what you and your friend (McGuffin) want.
But that is exactly what councilmembers Jinks, LeBel, Garrett, Senter, Bivens, Rep. Miller, and Sen. Southerland did. They refused to LET THE PEOPLE SPEAK on the McGuffin Law in a $250 referendum.
The local "news"man didn't report Claude's contradictions or his family link to MUC.
No surprise there. What and how the "news"man reports on meetings and officials all depends on who you are and where you rank on his and his boss' list.
The "news"man absolutely loves to use spin and in some cases outright false statements to criticize Gene Brooks. But his new specialty is using his "news" articles to go after Mayor Danny Thomas who did the unforgivable in 2011 by defeating the "news"man's friend Frank McGuffin, son of George of MUC fame, in the Morristown mayoral race.
Now if Brooks or Thomas had given a lecture on how good and necessary change is while voting against any change on the MUC Board, the "news"man would have been all over it with a three-part series using words such as flip-flopping, inconsistent, contradictory, self-serving, conflict of interest, and on and on.
Claude, however, gets a pass because Claude is on the McGuffin side which the "news"man supports. Not a peep about conflicted Claude.
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