I arrived at the City Hall at 5:30 p.m. one hour before the scheduled meeting.
Planned parenthood was there early too, these people were pros and had gone though this more than once before:
This not to say that Planned Parenthood didn’t have its supporters among the population. I spotted an old friend of mine with them and we chatted for a while. A local woman by the name of Sue Longey gave a strong defense of their position as well.
The Pro choice people came later and congregated between the inner and outer doors, they didn’t really want to talk as they were busy planning strategy.
The Chamber stood empty as the hour approached
Once the Planned Parenthood people saw I was a blogger everything became “no comment”, the city counselors didn’t want to say anything before the meetings either. Everyone was holding their cards very close to the vest. This is a close up of the Mayor’s spot it was empty and would stay empty as long as this subject was on the table.
The Mayor WAS in the building however and as this shot shows whatever our political disagreements, she has excellent taste in Pizza:
But the closest you would find her near this issue was her photo on the wall with the past mayors.
There was one slightly amusing false alarm when we were let into the room before they were ready, both sides filed in and were asked to file out.
One interesting addition was the police force, two uniformed officers were present. Nobody from the FATV people to anyone else ever remembered a meeting where police had to be present. I asked the officers if they ever remembered such a meeting but they declined comment, I then asked if they personally ever were assigned to a city counsel meeting but they declined comment again.
Both sides seemed a little worried hoping they would not be needed, but everyone forgot their worry once the meeting began.
(continued tomorrow when I’ve had some sleep.)
