Jeannes spar twice during Council meeting

Jeanne Harris and Jeanne Stewart may share a first name, but they don’t share a lot of love for one another.

On Monday, the tensions that run constantly below the surface of their relationship erupted twice in a three hour meeting. Unable to constrain themselves to their usual eye rolls, they squabbled badly enough that Mayor Tim Leavitt had to break it up with a “Ladies!”

It started as the council considered (get ready for it): Modification of the Vehicle for Hire Ordinance (VMC 5.76), Which Includes Suspension of the Private for Hire Transportation Commission, Due to the Budget Reductions Approved in January 2010.

They spent over an hour on the topic, and Harris’ patience grew thin as she felt Stewart was running on. As Stewart began speaking, Harris interjected with, “Yes, that’s what’s been described to us several times now.”

Stewart almost let it go, but paused to tell Harris, “I don’t like it when you do that. Please don’t interrupt me.” To which Harris replied, “I don’t care whether you like it or not.”
“When I’m thorough, you’ll know when I’m through,” Stewart replied.

Leavitt finally had to interject.

The women, who sit next to each other, kept it civil until frequent-flyer Larry Patella stepped to the podium. Patella began to quote from an e-mail written by Councilor Pat Campbell… but Harris cut him off, telling him that the citzen communications is not a place to berate individual council members.

Well, Stewart chimed in on Harris’ opinion, with a “wait a minute, wait a minute,” and telling her that “when Mr. Campbell sent the e-mail to all those people, it made that e-mail a public document.”

The two ran over each others’ sentences, and ultimately, after another word of warning from Leavitt, let it go.

Here’s a link to the CVTV coverage of the evening.