Mayor Strom’s explanation during the May 15th Council meeting demonstrated first-class political spin for why the April 22 meeting was adjourned early. For those active citizens who have shown up to protest at City Council meetings and have been told they “must refrain from audible support”, Mayor Strom and Mayor Pro Tem Shahrezaei issued a slap in the face. They threatened people for clapping between speakers but allowed interruptions to a speaking Councilor. Then they both claimed that security concerns led the Mayor to adjourn the meeting early on April 22, rather than the active heckling that they allowed. The reality is that no safety concerns were cited at the time and there were no efforts to tame the crowd. Instead, there were people interrupting the Councilors they disagreed with.
Councilor Shahrezaei made the motion to adjourn the meeting and said “We’re done with you, Councilor Olver.” No matter the explanation offered by Mayor Strom, Strom was not the leader of this drama. Instead, she followed Shahrezaei. Neither of them asked the people who were heckling and questioning Olver to please quiet down.
Mayor Strom explains at the beginning of each public comment session that there should be no “audible support” from the public. In the past, one or two people clapping between speakers has been enough for Mayor Strom to threaten to recess the meeting.
“We will be recessing if we continue to have clapping. Let’s please make sure that we can respect everybody’s ability to listen.” – Mayor Strom, November 27, 2023
On April 22nd, neither Strom nor Shahrezaei threatened to recess the meeting due to disruptions. Instead, the meeting was shut down because one Councilor was making a contradictory opinion on a nationally divisive issue and another Councilor disagreed.
See the video showing the two different examples.
Strom argues that the security concerns weren’t visible on video. That may be true, but a call for order would have been visible and that was conspicuously absent. Not one mention of safety, security or order was made at the time. Watch the video to see for yourself.
The safety claim was pure political spin, first reported by a resident who questioned Shahrezaei at a ward meeting.
The claim is a insult to residents who have had to endure the condescending attitude towards “audible support” in past meetings.
Not only was it an insulting, false claim, it was a step backwards for women. Women are better than having to resort to hysterical claims of safety to justify their actions. Women can be strong leaders and competently run meetings, even when their counterparts have opinions they disagree with. Lakewood residents deserve that strength in their elected officials.
“You wanna keep arguing here or are you going to listen?” Olver responds to multiple comments from the crowd, April 22, 2024.
Losing control of the meeting may be forgivable; it was an unusual situation. Spinning the story later was a disservice to everyone, especially to Councilor Olver, who did not get an apology for being rudely cut off. The Councilors who did not get an opportunity to speak and all the community members who want a transparent and accountable government deserve an apology they did not get.
Lakewood Informer 