Spring Lake Park Meeting‏ Poorly Planned

This is a copy of an email sent to the CSO! project coordinator, Public Works officials, the Omaha mayor, the local member of the city council, a project planner and reporters of the local press. The email announcement of the meeting was not received until April 19th, though I did know about it earlier in the week.

It is quite absurd that an official notice of this important meeting was received only ten days prior to the planned meeting.

There should be a minimum of three weeks notice so if there is a scheduling conflict, people have time to rearrange things to be able to attend

Also, there is nothing indicated as to what the meeting will entail. While it be a rehash of the project purpose (the same speil talked about at every meeting), a glowing presentation of what the park will "supposedly" look like in ten years, and then 15 minutes for public comments, with no public discussion. It is this item which is an essential part of the process.

But of course, when I asked for clarification on this item, no response was received to my email.

This is a copy of the email sent on April 15th: "I hope that when this meeting on the evening of April 29th is announced that it will indicate no limits on the number of people that can comment, that the time for an individual to speak will be indicated, and that a public record of the meeting be taken and be available afterwards. Any parameters need to be defined before the meeting to make certain that it is a suitable public meeting, not something else.

"The limitation on speaking should also apply to Public Works officials, though they could bring their entire staff and take over the meeting!"

Are the finalized and already approved plans posted online for people to review and consider. Considering their complexity and length it would take more than a few days to properly review and evaluate! But there is no opportunity being given for this either.

This smacks of nothing more than Public Works wanting to shove a meeting down our throat and simply get it out of the way. It represents an authoritarian perspective by a public agency. Is this what this has resorted to ... forcing things onto the public? It sure appears this way because of this too-brief notice and the way the proposal to fill the creek has been handled.

The meeting needs to be delayed until May. There will not even be a notice in the local newspaper until just a few days prior to the 29th.

It's quite appalling the way this is being handled! Shame on Public Works and the people making these decisions.