Some local veterans have submitted open letters to the Riley County Commission demanding the meetings be streamed online.
The letters were made public Wednesday by Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice. (They are attached below.)
The group of active and retired veterans argue that due to the ongoing health crisis, activity conducted during the two weekly meetings is being done in secret, heightened by the fact that the county commission also acts as the Board of Health, in charge of the health department and essentially public health policy. They argue the meetings are poorly publicized, never televised and held during work hours to limit public attendance.
“Our freedom in Riley County grants us, the people, a direct say on who sits in office, what policies are made, and how tax money gets spent,” one letter states. “We are their boss. Not the other way around.”
Some of the demands include live, virtual broadcasts of the Monday and Thursday meetings, public notice of serial and non-serial meetings, bi-weekly serial evening open meetings during the time of the pandemic response, recording of said meetings that are archived and filed with the meeting minutes on the county’s website and the inclusion of American Sign Language and Spanish language translation.
Those meetings are currently limited to how many people can attend, due to public health restrictions on gatherings, but are not closed to the public. Both KMAN and the Manhattan Mercury provide the public with meeting previews and news reports on meeting activity weekly. KMAN also welcomes each commissioner onto its hour long In Focus program the second Tuesday of each month for a public opportunity to voice concerns to commissioners. Commission Chair Marvin Rodriguez will join the program May 12 at 9:07 a.m. Commissioner John Ford is scheduled for June 9 and Ron Wells on July 14.
The response as to why the meetings are not being streamed has been largely inconsistent among the commission. Commissioner Ford has voiced support, Wells said Monday it should be voted on in the November election and Rodriguez has not commented on the matter.
Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice has been pushing for the streaming of meetings since Rodriguez made a controversial comment in March stating the reason the positive numbers of coronavirus cases in Riley County were low was due to “not having any Chinese.” He has since apologized for the comments but has received repeated calls for his resignation.
The group has been attending meetings and live streaming them to their Facebook page. Views for the first meeting were over 800, but then dropped to 270 by the second meeting.
The first letter (below) was signed by SSG Kerrigan USA RETIRED GW ‘81-’92; SPC Angela Dorsey ARMY VETERAN ’09-’13; Kaleb James Army Veteran ’07-’15; SGT Jeff Gauthier USAF veteran ’75-’79; Richard K. Green Army Veteran 79-90.
LTE - May 4 (1).docxThe second letter (below) was signed by Richard Colwell, Corporal, USMC 2010-2015; Quinton Cox; Gabriel Colwell, Corporal, USMC 2010-2014; SSG Kerrigan USA RETIRED GW ‘81-’92; Jamal Carter A1C USAF; David Horner, Captain, US Army – ‘79-‘90.
Vets for Transparency.docx
