I am concerned about a few of our city council members’ use of social media. Recently, I noticed a distasteful and obnoxious ad in my news feed. It portrayed a woman holding her nose, with a look of disgust on her face, and the caption read, “No bid deals for insiders stink and they are bad for our city! LIKE if you agree!” The ad then prompted you to “like” a certain council member’s official city council Facebook page. Obviously, this was a blatant shot at his fellow council member, Diane Forte, as it came immediately after the June 23rd meeting in which an impromptu motion and vote was made to remove her as LSPR liaison.

This kind of bullying on social media is not only rude, it is immature, and a terrible example to our younger generation as to how social media can and should be used. Aside from that, I have noticed city council members regularly using their personal Facebook pages to engage in, and sometimes even initiate, arguments in comment threads. This type of antagonistic behavior is inappropriate and embarrassing for our city. To make matters worse, council members are regularly looking at and posting on Facebook during city council meetings. I can only imagine the other interactions they are having on their cell phones during the meetings if they are so bold as to publicly post on social media when they should be paying attention to the matters at hand. This type of behavior is unproductive and makes for a dysfunctional body.

Is this Junior High? Do we need to collect cell phones before they step on the dais? Recently, a cartoon was published in a local hometown newspaper depicting LS School Board and LS City Council as clowns. Unfortunately, I can’t help but tend to agree. This type of behavior is clown-like, and should be stopped immediately.

Betsy Cochran
Lee’s Summit, MO