Citizen Demands of Council: “Instead of disagreeing with Judy Bingham, we should all say Thank You because she saw what was going on.”
At the December 19, 2017, Beaumont City Council Meeting Mayor Lloyd White Recessed the Council Meeting to cut off Judy Bingham from Speaking:
At the January 2, 2018 City Council Meeting Linda Kimble told now Councilman Lloyd White that he needed to apologize to Judy Bingham and thank her for everything she’s done to stop government corruption.
White’s response was that:
- White thought he was running a business meeting.
- He wrote a response to his website.
- White ‘used to be’ on Bingham’s side.
- ‘Believed’ it was the most polite response to a Citizen speaking over three minutes.
If the employees of a private sector business recessed a meeting to shut up an owner of the business; the employees would be fired.
White’s response on his website doesn’t apologize; it recites court cases and makes excuses as to when a meeting can be shut down. Apparently in White’s mind; Mrs. Bingham speaking constitutes a ‘riot’.
What happened to Lloyd White? Judy Bingham isn’t wrong. Judy Bingham wasn’t wrong a decade ago and she’s not wrong now, so why is Judy Bingham White’s enemy?
Mayor Nancy Carroll’s statement of the night solidified the Council’s distortion of Brown Act and free speech; “And when there are comments such as ‘I will be going as long as I want’. That is taking away the principal of that free speech platform and which is equal for everyone”
‘We must enslave everyone equally’ is not an excuse. The entire point of the First Amendment and the Brown Act is to ensure the right of the Citizen to speak.
Judy Bingham is usually the only speaker at the meetings. And what is the harm in letting the Citizens speak as long as they want?
In the State Meeting’s Public Comment Forms it ask: how long do you need? and leaves a blank. Sometimes people only need a minute to speak, sometimes they need five minutes. Why is that a problem?
Silencing the Citizens is a big red flag that the government is corrupt. Judy Bingham has never lied about anything; she doesn’t have to – the truth is bad enough.
The truth is that the five ‘new’ Councilmen had a chance to hire honest and qualified staff ad clean up Beaumont, but instead they brought in another set of crooks to gouge the Citizens and continue the same scams.
Beaumont City Council Meeting Public Comment Linda Kimble: I saw you, Mayor White, rudely cut off Judy Bingham. That was uncalled for. While she was speaking of the $43 Million that was stolen. These monies were paid by the Citizens of Beaumont and we are always being asked to pay for one ideal or another that has already been paid for.
Kimble: Instead of disagreeing with Judy Bingham; we should all say Thank You because she saw what was going on. I read the financials from years ago. I don’t know her, but my god was she spot on. Spot on; the whole thing. The Citizens of Beaumont; we all live in this City. We should be supporting each other not disagreeing.
Kimble: I’ve seen her comments and I want to say thank you, but she’s not here, I don’t see her. I feel that you owe her an apology for how rude you were because a lot of people saw it on YouTube and and we commented in the City: You can’t do that. So you can cut me off if you want, but I’ll do the same thing – I will keep talking.
Kimble: Lastly; this Sewer Increase; I’m going to vote ‘No’ because I found that it was paid for in 1993. My daughter’s 24. That’s 24 years ago, and now you’re asking for us to pay again? Plus the Citizens that have already paid for it? No. If you want to work with the Citizens you need to stop and listen to what we’re saying. You’re always asking for more moneys that have already been paid. City Manager and City Council; stop looking at the Citizens of Beaumont for more money. Why don’t you get some more stores to buy those vacant lots by Kohls and Walmart? Let the businesses pay more money. Stop asking us, we’ve paid enough. We’ve got Mello Roos; that’s a hefty amount of money that’s been taken. Remember this year, 2018, it is time for the Citizens to vote.
Councilman Lloyd White: Ms. Kimball; I understand your concerns and I believe that I was upholding the concept that this is a business meeting, that we needed to conduct our business efficiently. What I have done is, because of the response, I’ve put up an entire written response as to why I did what I did. I felt it was necessary to do what I did. I think anyone here can tell you that if you go to ‘ourfocusourkids.com ; that’s where I put up my statement.
Councilman White: And if you’ll go there, there’s also there’s also about 550-600 articles that I’ve written over the last eight years. And I was right along side Mrs. Bingham up there and I was doing all – claiming and arguing all of the same points she was. But that night she had told me that she was going to go on as long as she wanted to go on and I respectfully asked her to wrap it up, and I asked her again to wrap it up and finally I ‘believed’ that the most polite way I could do it was to just Adjourn the Meeting. I couldn’t find any other option. [letting her finish reading what she had written was NOT an option] We needed to conduct our business efficiently. As I said; you can read my written response on my Website.
Mayor Nancy Carroll: I will add one thing to that. One of the overriding rules, I did some research on for public comments after that meeting, and one of the things that was an overriding principal is that public comment is supposed to be as fair as possible to the Public. And that’s the purpose. You make sure that they have an opportunity to express freely whatever it is that they want to say and that there’s deep respect for that and I think that we’ve always done that. [Is that a Joke?]
Carroll: But you can’t, according to what I was reading, also you can’t decide to apply different rules to different people. Because what you give to one when you don’t give the same to everyone else. It is no longer the same fair free speech platform that it was designed to be. And you can’t make capricious decisions to let one extend and not let the other extend.
Carroll: And when there are comments such as ‘I will be going as long as I want’. That is taking away the principal of that free speech platform and which is equal for everyone to be able to say whatever it is, their opinion fully, that is not what anyone is trying to restrict. What they’re trying to do is just make sure this is as balanced as possible. That was one of the things that impressed me when I read about what a lot of Judicial Opinions were and why things were put in place in a certain way.