Madore: Let the public debate on Facebook

The Clark County commissioners’ work session on marijuana was attended by more than 60 people. That’s a huge crowd, considering a reporter from The Columbian is often the only person at work sessions who doesn’t either work for the county or the group directly involved with the subject of the session.

Work sessions don’t include time for public comment, much to the disappointment of people — mostly proponents of the state law — who raised their hands and wanted to give input.

At the end of the Wednesday session, Commissioner David Madore made it clear he didn’t want to have to listen to anything more than what he’ll have to hear when commissioners have the proposed ordinance on their agenda.

“I would not suggest that the county host a forum for public debate on this,” Madore said. “There are plenty of options out there,” he continued, mentioning Facebook. “We can let our community support that on their own.”

Letting people share their opinions via social networking sites is “maximizing freedom of speech,” Madore said, because the government isn’t serving as host or moderator.

Work sessions aren’t recorded by CVTV, but here’s the audio file.

https://soundcloud.com/col_video/madore-county-shouldnt-host

It’s a little difficult to hear Madore clearly — that’s County Administrator Mark McCauley you’ll hear over Madore, giving his 2 cents to the person next to him. (Keep quiet, Mark!)

If you want to hear the entire meeting, you can go here.

Madore did post his thoughts on Facebook – not the part about not wanting to host a public forum, but why he doesn’t want to honor the voters and follow state law.

MadoreFB-pot