UNRULY MEETING HURTS THE SICK

There's a way to get what you want from elected officials at a public
meeting.

Be respectful. Be logical. Be reverential. Win them over with
kindness. Don't be argumentative. Don't be rude. Don't be bombastic.
Don't try to incite the crowd. Don't curse. Don't dress like you're
going to a hillbilly barbecue.

The Butte County supervisors have faced that kind of group at two
straight medical marijuana meetings. I've never seen a more hostile
public meeting than the last one, earlier this month at the Chico Elks
Lodge. The three supervisors I talked to this week haven't seen
anything like it either.

The supervisors could handle the threats of recalls, the promise to
run them out of office, the accusations that their decisions were
killing people. But what really upset all three was the lack of
decorum toward a high school girl.

The marijuana advocates - many of them anyway - shouted down anybody
who dared to come to the microphone and ask the supervisors to slap
restrictions on marijuana growers. But when they hooted and jeered a
high school girl who noted how prevalent the drug was on her campus,
they immediately lost the respect of the supervisors.

"How crazy is that?" board Chairman Steve Lambert asked, still upset a
week later. "I've never been around a group of people who can't keep
their mouth shut for one minute."

Bill Connelly, a supervisor from the Oroville area, noted the same
problem.

"They don't have the self-control to keep from popping off. That's
what bothers me," said Connelly. "They're childlike in their
compulsive behavior and they're not willing to hear the other point of
view. I find it offensive that they think they have a constitutional
right to impact their neighbors."

Supervisor Maureen Kirk said she was most bothered by foul language,
especially near the end of the long meeting. That's something you
don't see often, if ever, at public meetings. Most people know when to
ratchet it down. Not at this meeting. And this occurred in a room with
a dozen sheriff's deputies.

"When they showed how rude they can be with law enforcement standing
right next to them," said Lambert, "I can imagine how they can be with
their neighbors."

That's why the supervisors are considering restrictions. Too many
citizens have written and begged the supervisors to do something. A
few more of them showed up to the last meeting, but they often were
booed, jeered and met with derisive laughter early in their remarks.
Seeing the pattern, quite a few residents decided not to even try to
speak. They didn't want to subject themselves to that.

The meeting started with somebody getting thrown out for creating a
disturbance, and ended with Kirk trying to make the ordinance more
lenient on the largest lots. When she was shouted down, even while
trying to help the growers, she backed off her proposal and the
proposed ordinance became more restrictive.

"It ended up biting them," said Lambert. "To be honest with you, I
think our board would have said we'll give you more plants."

Other behavior bites them as well. After the first meeting in
February, eight gates on Lambert's cattle ranch were stolen, valued at
$150 apiece. Cows got out. He doesn't think the timing was a
coincidence.

Many of the growers, who Lambert notes are "making more money than
they ever have in their lives," don't trust the government, so asking
them to act with decorum at a government meeting may be a little farfetched.

Still, they should have been able to figure out to keep their mouths
shut and appoint a spokesperson who knew the right things to say.
There were a few like that at the last meeting, people with serious
diseases and logical arguments. The rest should have stayed quiet.
Instead, 133 people spoke for five hours, and many said the same
thing. Over and over.

It's amazing that so many of them couldn't figure out the right way to
approach the board. The resulting ordinance will work to their
detriment. Sadly, it also will harm those who are truly ill.