Sex Offenders, Lies, and Video Tape

I can't believe that I attend city council meetings on a regular basis. Back in the old days, when I had a life, I had a favorite line when people asked me about being a musician - "I'm just in it for the cheeseballs," I'd say. I don't think it made sense to anyone. It was just my own private little joke. You see, I've always been a country gal who loves horses, Beethoven, and the beauty of nature. For me to be all dressed up at some glamorous gala, hanging around with famous people after performing a concert with the symphony seems so sureal. It always amused me somehow. Those hoity-toity social events were kind of a hoot, but were so not me! I recall chatting with musicians backstage or with the audience by an elegant refreshment table when suddenly I'd notice I had dog hair all over my gown. I'm sure they noticed too. Oh well. I loved performing the music, and the wine and cheese parties were excellent, but on the other hand, I never minded shoveling horse manure into a wheelbarrow and getting delightfully dirty. I'm all-purpose.

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Attending an Onamia city council meeting is sort of the same thing, just a different kind of cheeseballs, another type of manure.

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Let me give you an idea of how strange the people in Onamia are. You know how hard we have been fighting to keep the sex offenders out of the neighborhood. The fact of the matter is - the laws are on our side. Minnesota Statutes as well as city ordinances are written to protect citizens from exactly this sort of thing. There are nuisance laws, laws against sex offender facilities being placed in residential areas, and then, of course, there is Spot Zoning. The city council ignores the state laws and re-writes the city ordinances that interfere with The Main Directive, i.e. the Nexusification of Onamia.

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In order to circumvent the Conditional Use Permit performance standards, the city council had their lawyer write a city ordinance which actually gives juvenile sex offenders a zoning class of their own. Yes folks. I kid you not! We have R1 single residential and R2 multi- family and juvenile sex offender facilities. I know, I know. I couldn't believe it either. After getting acquainted with the city council over these past 9 months of hell, I can believe that they'd come up with a goofy scheme such as creating a zoning classification for sex offenders, but what's up with their lawyer? Wouldn't you think he'd give his clients better advice?

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So anyway, I dragged myself out of my warm house into the brrrrsy below zero Minnesnowda winter to once again do battle against this silly business in a pretend public hearing, which the council holds when absolutely mandatory, which this was. Its just for show, of course. The public has no influence. The council's decisions are predetermined and unshakable. And we also know what they are going to do. Everyone just goes through the motions, (no pun intended.)

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Don't you think that the Zoning Administrator oughta be present at a zoning public hearing? Nope. He's on vacation again. Left last month and won't be back until April. Jerome Kryzer, one of the city councilman lives in Arizona during the winter. Naturally, he wasn't present at the meeting. How can he be on the council if he lives in Arizona, you ask? Hey, its Onamia. Stranger things than that happen here. Councilman Bob Mickus was another no-show, but that's to be expected. He hardly ever shows up.

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That left only three guys left to determine our lives, our property values, our future... a guy who owns a grocery store, a guy who works in a hospital lab, and a retired barber. Aren't you comforted by the thought that somebody like them can take control of your destiny? They can Done the Deal of your life, and there's absolutely nothing you can do to stop them. They can force you to live next to 94 convicted criminals. Doesn't seem quite right, somehow.

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However, at the end of the public hearing, at least we got them to consider dropping the sex offender zoning classification and zone for Conditional Use after all. I'm not so sure this was a victory for us........

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There were a couple of things that really bothered me about the city council meeting tonight. If you look on the Mille Lacs News website (millelacsnews.com), you can read about a whole lot of lies Nexus has been spinning. A whole lot of manure they have been spreading. I went before the council tonight and shared the Truth with them. I guess it doesn't surprise me that they weren't surprised by Nexus lies. It just disappoints me. They already knew. Still, they are forcing the sex offenders into the neighborhood, aware of the risks they are imposing upon our families. You know the old saying: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Mayor Bully Milton knows what he's doing.... It just pisses him off that we're not bending over for him.

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Its all so wrong.

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The other thing that was hard to take was that Poncho videotaped the meeting, including my presentation. We watched the tape with my mom when we got home. (She is still way too weak to consider attending herself.) Being sort of a movie buff, it made me sad that the only films I get to watch these days are tapes of city council meetings I am obligated to attend while trying to save my home from an invasion of sex offenders. (And people wonder what makes Hannabelle so crabby and mean?) Anyway, there I was on the small screen.... Ugh! I hate to watch myself! Yuck! I'm so fat and do I really sound like that??? TELL ME ITS NOT TRUE! ...... wait .... no.... Is that dog hair on my coat?

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Same shit, different dog.