TO THE EDITOR:

Mayor Rick Smisson and his city council passed restrictive meeting procedures and fee schedules for public information, which will completely stifle public input and involvement in the process of running city government in Harris.

The mayor said, ìIt is a myth that Open Meeting Law (OML) gives the public the right to speak at an open meeting.î

The mayor and city council are allowing only a total of 15 minutes of input from resident and taxpayers, with a 3 minute limit per person. They reserve the right, however, to acknowledge or choose who may speak at these meetings, and the presiding officer, may, at any time, end the presentation of they so choose.

In our opinion, the mayor and city council along with the cityís legal counsel, have come up with a supposedly legal way to do whatever they so choose, without the input of concerned taxpaying residents of Harris.

A few of the areas causing us grave concern are as follows: The city council approved a loan application for $5.3+ million of Harris taxpayersí money for a water and sewer system on March 10, 2006;

The city council approved a new bond issue of $515,000 for preliminary costs of the new water and sewer system (mostly engineering costs and legal fees) before even getting approval of the $5.3 million loan on March 10, 2006;

The Harris City Council also approved a contract for approximately $225,000 to the city engineerís employer, Bonestroo and Associates for preliminary design engineering of the water/sewer system. Did this ever go out for public bid? If so, where are these bids?

We post the question, do we not have the right to vote on bond issues and loans that affect every taxpaying citizen? Or at a minimum, to at least have the opportunity to fairly convey our concerns?

As stated by certain Harris City Council members at the March 10, 2006 special meeting, they had never seen the cost numbers ($5.3 plus million loan) prior to this meeting, yet during the meeting, they were handed the microphone and then motioned and voted to accept the cost numbers. Please check the published Harris City Council minutes for yourself. In our opinion this is not only appalling, but extremely alarming.

We feel that as taxpaying citizens of Harris, we further need to ask ourselves if in fact we still live in the United States or does it seem that our mayor and city council are forming their own rules and regulations that benefit a select few and not the people of the community as a whole.

Many of their approvals and proposals pose to positively effect and financially benefit a chosen few while financially burdening the majority of the residents of Harris.

In our opinion, much of this has been done by our elected officials without proper public notice and without the opportunity to express our concerns.

We wonder if maybe itís time that the rural property owners of the city of Harris consider forming our own township where we can have government that is run ëby and for the peopleî of the city of Harris.

Brian and Lisa Jorgenson
Harris