Tonight we were told that the Greeley City Council would be simply moving the chicken ordinance to its final stage which would be the public input and final vote on February 2nd. No need to show up as it is a simple formality and we would have our day in the sun on February 2nd to discuss the backyard hen ordinance. So Britton and I decided to watch it from the comfort of our basement living room. It would be difficult to say that it was a serious matter because if I didn’t know better I’d say we were watching a comedy. An awful, scary, comedy.
The headless chicken AKA Greeley City Council: alive but barely functional
First they pulled the chicken ordinance from the consent agenda. Sometimes they will do this so that they can clarify certain items so this didn’t surprise us. They talked about it a little and then the oh, so eloquent Maria Secrest “kind of” suggested that they kill the ordinance and not even move it to public opinion and input. Which is what we have spent the last 6 months working towards! She was not very clear though, so someone else, Sandi Elder made a motion to review the ordinance in a year if it passed on February 2nd.
Then John Gates said that it depended on if the first motion carried. Well, it wasn’t exactly a motion, but then Secrest decided to make it a motion. Poor old Archibeque didn’t even know which item they were voting on, but upon hearing that Gates and Secrest didn’t want to continue with it he said that since EVERYONE didn’t want the ordinance that there was no sense in talking about it. (Since when did 2 people out of 7 become EVERYONE?) But happily, he did ask why Secrest wanted to kill the ordinance in the first place.
This is where the comedy gets really good...she said that if we allowed chickens in Greeley, PEOPLE MIGHT SHOOT EACH OTHER! Yes. That was her excuse for not allowing chickens. I had to close my eyes and blink extra hard to see if I heard that right. I thought I had every myth and fallacy out there covered. But no, I hadn’t heard about that…I couldn’t help but laugh…yes…this is what she said…If a person’s dog went into another person’s yard and they had chickens and the said dog killed those chickens, the crazy chicken owner might just grab a gun and SHOOT the neighbor and she would not want on her conscience the death of a toddler. WHAT??! WHAT??! Am I living in the Twilight Zone? Is she that off her rocker?
Gunned down by a chicken
Apparently she and three other council members are (off their rockers) because they decided to take a vote and while Mike Finn, Sandi Elder and Donna Sapienza mentioned property rights and at least hearing from their constituents at the next council meeting, the other four voted the measure down out of the consent agenda. This was not after considerable confusion about whether or not they were voting the item down or voting the item in…that damnastid double negative language the government loves to confuse us with. I was watching the whole thing with my mind swirling… now what exactly is happening? A “no” vote means “yes” and a “yes” vote means “no” to the measure. Ok…wait, now what are they voting on again?
In the end, I am not sure what exactly happened but apparently the “yes” votes said “no” to the ordinance continuing on which in essence left us with nothing. No chance to speak, no chance to be heard, no respect for the process, nor our time, the time of the city staff, the planning commission or even the people who were against it who may have been planning to come out in two weeks to give them a piece of their mind. This was the most disgraceful example of local government ineptitude I have ever seen. Incredible!
What will this mean for us? Well that remains to be seen. We still have our original defense which we never had a response to. We also have a few more tricks up our sleeves. In any case, this is not the end of the matter, and we will happily continue our lives in Greeley with Schnoodle, Kitty, Henrietta, Omelette, Football and Greenfoot, at least until we get the hell out of this crazy warp zone.
Archibeque….wow. Does he even know what day it is? At first he didn’t know what issue they were even talking about. Then with the double negative the whole council was confused. He ended up voting AGAINST the thing he wanted to vote for!!!
Seriously folks. These people represent us.
The whole point of not having chickens because people will shoot each other was simply incredible. I mean really. How F’ing stupid can a person that was elected to represent the city be!?
Yeah…the problem isn’t that people would be willing to shoot each other. Its the chickens that would be the issue.
Anyway, I’m really glad this isn’t a super important issue that we have money on the line over. All I can do is laugh.
I certainly think that Mr. Archibeque was confused, but I have to say that the entire process regarding that particular issue was confusing. They couldn’t even get motions right, and then the double negative… The entire thing about people shooting each other over a chicken?
I often wonder about this town called Greeley. It certainly is like we are trapped in the Twilight Zone..
You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the sign post up ahead, your next stop…The Greeley Zone!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzlG28B-R8Y
I watched the city council meeting and agree that no one was prepared. With all the confusion over the issue, the MAYOR, who is the LEADER of the pack should have used his abilities to make the issue CLEAR to all before going forward to a vote. Do they not have a secretary as well as playback so they could have seen that there was no motion???
The least thing should have been to wait until February 2 to get public opinion on the issue.
The mayor is a sneaky bastard. He knew there was confusion and saw it play out in his favor so there was no reason to clarify.
Either way it will work out so we aren’t too concerned. It’s frustrating to see how government works often times. Although I suppose for some this is a victory.
It’s a damn chicken shit shame that this has too be such an issue, like one comment published on the Tribunes website stated,” Private Property, there is no such a thing, we pay property taxes so essentially we rent from the government.” Well stated I thought. Slowly we have moved into a totalitarian government, welcome to the United Sates of America where at one time we were FREE.
Yikes. Sorry to hear about this guys. Absolutely absurd. Rest assured that once you move over here, you can keep whatever the hell you want in your backyard, your front yard and (usually) on the road! 🙂
I can’t believe this. I certainly wish I would have written a letter now, though who knows whether it would have helped. What a crazy thing to do, based on a hysterical imaginary scenario. I posted about it too. I hope it comes up for comment again.
If the chickens need safe refuge and personal freedoms we’ll take them in! There are a dozen or so that wander our property so they’ll have friends.
I think we might still try to fight for this here. Although I am pretty ready to give up and move to PR..lol.
Although if I have learned anything, its never give up and do whatever it takes.
Wonder who came up with that crazy idea of dogs, chickens and guns? Somebody planted that absurdity. A bunch of fearful people who didn’t worry about a backlash from chicken owners. You guys did plant the seed, and the idea is not going away, so they will have to deal with it anyway, but just not right now I guess. When people get fearful, and many are right now, they get more conservative. Jeez, how crazy is this?
I really like when people are expressing their opinion and thought. So I like the way you are writing