Thursday, April 21, 2011

Rakestraw on Rakestraw on Gerrymandering and the Mysteriously Appearing Map with a little Bill Knight, Nancy Vaughan, Trudy Wade, Bill Burckley and Zack Matheny

"...there’s no reason why people shouldn’t be able to get information.

...Some times it’s hard to get information.

Sometimes maybe it’s not convenient, or maybe they don’t want to make it available.

...Maybe they don’t want you to have the information right then.

Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw
— who submitted the map the council members approved Tuesday night
— announced she didn’t create the map at all: It mysteriously showed up on her doorstep.

...The plan favors Rakestraw politically.

...Rakestraw — said she isn’t sure who created the map.

...“I have no idea where it came from,” she said Wednesday.

Rakestraw said she went over the plan with Councilwoman Trudy Wade
and political strategist Bill Burckley

But if we want the city council people to make the best decisions that we can make
we have to have the facts before us.

We’ve got to have the information.

...We’ve been sued by about everybody, y’all — to get information.

So there is a problem there.

And we need to have that information.

Vaughan...said Councilman Zack Matheny, the council’s redistricting liaison,
should have expressed to the council how unpopular the idea was.

“He really didn’t come back to us with anything,” Vaughan said.

...I’ve always been transparent.

Rakestraw’s redistricting map was released by the city Friday night
but did not appear on the agenda.

I’m accessible and I’m available.

I’ve never had a person who said, “I can’t get in touch with you.”

None of those who voted with Rakestraw
— Mayor Bill Knight and council members Trudy Wade and Nancy Vaughan
— explained their decisions to the public at Tuesday’s meeting.

Wherever I am, there’s the public, and that’s the way it should be.

Knight did not return repeated calls Wednesday from the News & Record.

Wade was unavailable.

Matheny is distancing himself from the situation.

...he would not say how he would have voted.

That’s what a public official is all about.

And you should always be available to the public when they call you."

Mary Rakestraw

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NEWSBUSTED at NEWSBUSTERS.ORG 2-18-2015