Council Watch Stories
56 stories found. Showing page 1 of 3.
Council Watch: Billy Manes pays attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 10/21/2010 | By Billy Manes
If city council was a color, this week’s mind meld would have been a peppy pink. Several commissioners donned pink T-shirts (over their ties and under their blazers, attractively) in recognition of “...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes pays attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 10/7/2010 | By Billy Manes
There was a dewy suppleness about this week’s morning-after meeting, a palpable electrical charge accompanied by sly winks, sweet scents and creased mouth corners; tangles of figurative clothes – or t...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes pays attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 9/30/2010 | By Billy Manes
Appropriately enough, it was all about watching things at this week’s civic slumber party. Lining the back walls of the council chambers were the so-called “big dogs” of local law enforcement staring ...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes pays attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 9/16/2010 | By Billy Manes
It was as if the entire daiswas crafted of gummy bears and chocolate bars at this week’s meeting of the Candy Land commission, which was weird because the whole evening would later be spent in the sou...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes pays attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 9/2/2010 | By Billy Manes
Collars were stained decidedly blue as this week’s Extreme Makeover: City Edition staff meeting was called to order. This was, after all, the week that the Garbage Pail Kids from the scrapheap lobby d...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes paying attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 8/19/2010 | By Billy Manes
Outside, hot water pelted the mini-skyscraper of our mini-metropolis, while inside the hot water washed around in a more litigious manner. Specifically, the city had in recent weeks been put on the ...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes pays attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 7/28/2010 | By Billy Manes
Outside City Hall, the scraggly stragglers of a homeless-feeding protest baked in the heat with honk-at-me placards, but inside it was a different kind of poverty – or at least its criminal symptoms –...[MORE]
Council Watch
Council Watch | 7/14/2010 | By Billy Manes
This week’s slip-n-slide into the garden wall of questionable taste launched with a particularly harrowing conundrum: things to do in council when a recently retired commissioner is dead. Nearly three...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes pays attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 6/24/2010 | By Billy Manes
There was no time like the present at this week’s can-do can-can, unless of course the future could be discussed at length by people in suits. First, a 20-minute video presentation on high-speed rail ...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes pays attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 6/9/2010 | By Billy Manes
The circle of life politely abutted the slightly rounded dais of decision at this week’s council of civic meditation. An invocation – delivered (for the first time!) by a non-denominational Buddhis...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes paying attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 5/26/2010 | By Billy Manes
It was like a cotillion or a Kentucky Derby party – or a movie set approximating either – as the hip, young, creative-class types of our speculative future mingled about in large, well-dressed numbers...[MORE]
Council Watch
Council Watch | 5/12/2010 | By Billy Manes
A dream deferred led to a council meeting 30 minutes deferred as Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts pixie Kathy Ramsberger went long on her “no, you’re great! No, you’re better!” pre-counci...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes paying attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 4/28/2010 | By Billy Manes
The City Beautiful was full of beautiful people doing city things this week; at least that’s how the mayor and his entourage would have you see it. What looked to be a hundred volunteers crowded the...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes paying attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 4/14/2010 | By Billy Manes
“Alan Grayson for President. Palin is an idiot,” read a sign just outside the city’s glorious hall of commissioners. What did it mean? Were things about to get contentious? Would this week’s dip in th...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes paying attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 3/24/2010 | By Billy Manes
It was time for a group hug at this week’s perfunctory brain trust bonanza, especially considering the news earlier in the day that supercool JetBlue would not be relocating its headquarters to Orlan...[MORE]
Council Watch: Paying attention to city government so you don’t have to
Council Watch | 3/10/2010 | By Billy Manes
It was a tale of two council meetings at this week’s civic square dance. The first half, or nice-people-consent-agenda-with-a-prayer-and-a-pledge, played out cheerfully enough, with such barely intere...[MORE]
Council Watch: Billy Manes pays attention to city government so you don’t have to
Council Watch | 2/24/2010 | By Billy Manes
It’s rarely a good sign when all of the seats are taken in the city’s political theater, and Monday’s miscellany – back after a three-week hiatus – would prove the rule. The first hour was stacked wi...[MORE]
Council Watch: Paying attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 2/3/2010 | By Billy Manes
For this very special episode of The City Gets to Thinkin’, Congresswoman Corrine Brown, D-Florida, was wheeled in for a fiery cameo appearance, shouting this and that about Haitian relief and st...[MORE]
Council Watch: Paying attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 1/27/2010 | By Billy Manes
From the first solemn ring of the church bells outside, it was clear that there would be very little to smile about at this week’s governmental misery support group meeting. A Unitarian invocatio...[MORE]
Council Watch: Paying attention to local government so you don't have to
Council Watch | 1/13/2010 | By Billy Manes
If you were to gather each of the essences from this week’s civic compost heap and reduce them down – then leave them on the counter for three weeks – the delicacy you’d be left with would be ...[MORE]