What on earth could possibly satisfy you? How would you like the meeting to progress? A summary closure of the airport?
Accusations of criminal behavior generally require some evidence.
I simply said that's how these things go. The donations don't have to be criminal at all.
When you place the power of deciding the fate of something into the hands of a committee, it doesn't matter how many people speak at the meetings in favor or against, all you have to do is sway a majority of a committee.
The meeting should have gone like this: All people in favor of the airport should have been prepped to say, "Chairperson, before I testify I would like to know how this got on the docket for community?"
When they don't answer, "It appears we are essentially holding a meeting for a community that didn't ask for it, for a perceived problem that lasts 100 seconds a day, of new noises in the sky. Was this public meeting brought at the whim of a minority of the community? I find it interesting that you have called out all of these people to waste our time this evening for a noise that lasts 100 seconds a day."
The supporters needed to put the elected on notice that there was no real problem to begin with and that they knew the council was already cow-towing to a wealthy minority.
Play to win. Playing their game is allowing the tail to wag the dog.
If political bribes don't work, and rational thought and logic prevail, I'm sure we could just tell AOPA PAC to disband and send the money to any anti aviation politician and it wouldn't matter.
They've got you all on the run and you're missing that they are calling meetings that only a minority of the community appears to want for a trivial problem. That should have been every pro-airport testifier's stand to start every testimonial.
Y'all need a PR person who knows how to make politicians believe their jobs are in jeopardy for calling meetings for no legitimate reason for a non-majority of the community. And a resonant position that the whole meeting was called to handle 20 overflights of 5 seconds of noise each, or only 100 seconds a day any of the whiners even hear the airplanes they've claimed are a problem big enough to be bothering city meetings with.
Because you're up against a numbers game. If there's 5 votes, it doesn't matter if you're 2000 strong or 2,000,000 strong. All the rich kids have to do is buy 3 people with favors or direct legal donations. That's WHY they made them call the meeting.
They have a winning strategy. Do you? Never allow a politician to engage you pretending to be fixing some problem without proving there's actually a problem first. And if they do anyway, ridicule the problem if it's obvious it's not one.
Anybody who can't handle 100 seconds a day of something probably isn't telling the truth and certainly isn't a normal member of any community if they think that deserves special treatment. Start there. Stop playing from behind.
