City of Bellemeade

Usually the mayor's notes about the Bellemeade City Commission appear on this site shortly after the meeting which is a good thing.  I assume there is a good reason for Larry to not post his comments about last night's meeting??????

Thanks for getting the notes up.  They were very detailed and informative, but I have some questions (not surprised huh?).

    Will there be an expense in operating the website that you approved? 

    In the sake of freedom of speech, why is anyone on or connected to the City 

    Commission going to be an administrator?  Does that not lend  itself to First  

    Amendment violation possibilities?

   Will the administrators have the right to edit or censure? How will inappropriate postings

    be controlled? 

    Will religious ads be allowed? 

   If a resident operates an escort service, will her/his ads be allowed even though they

   could be ads for illegal activity? You know you are going to be sued if you excluded

   those kinds of ads since this will be a government-operated website open to the public

   as long as they register and are confirmed as a real person, right?

   Who will make the decision on what is appropriate and what is inappropriate? What set

    of standards will apply?  Will there be a governance board to do that? 

   How will litigation costs be paid if someone brings suit against the city because of the

   website?  Are we unnecessarily putting our tax base in jeopardy?

    I don't think the current mayor or city clerk would purposely encraoch on others rights,

    but I don't know about future administrators. What assurances will there be to protect

    against illegal government censorship?

    Will the ads for homes for sale be posted free of charge?  If not, does that open a big

    pandora's box?  If not free, wiill a government-operated site be in competition with

    private business; i.e.,  real estate agents who live in Bellemeade?

I have more questions about the website after these are answered - if they have answers.

I have several questions as well.

1) would the site be for Residents only with a log in and password.  (and verified) we don't want a public blog.

2) why is a professional photographer being hired (presumably paid)  when I'm sure residents have beautiful shots of the CITY already that could be submitted for free and combed thru for the best shots. (myself included)

3) ADS...yes will there be advertising open to anyone

Whose idea was this website?  Why?  Somebody has not thought through this very clearly.  There are all sorts of legal ramifications attached to this project.

I do NOT want ads for escort services on a website operated by my elected officials.  Yes, they will attempt to post them; what better way to hide from the authorities than to advertise in a little ole local website.  And yes, we shall be sued if we try to exclude them. 

I recently ran across a website operated by one of our other Jefferson County smaller class cities.  It is terrible, filled with inflammatory political comments, racist comments, insane comments, lurid comments none of which can be controlled because it is an open forum protected by First Amendment,

Mayor, you failed to mention how much of our tax money this is going to cost?  How much?!

Was this potential monster passed unanimously?