Monday, December 15th is your day.

An Admistration Committee Meeting is to be held at 5:15PM in Council Chambers on the first floor of the Martin Luther King building – 10 N Second Street in downtown Harrisburg.

Invited to the meeting is none other than John Lavenda himself.

(If you’ve never attended a meeting, simply enter the building through the main entrance and proceed through the doors to your left.)

Why is this meeting important?

The Sports Hall of Fame is the latest in a very long string of Mayoral Blunders over the past twenty-something years: it’s essentially a giant scam set up for John Lavenda- the alleged, ahem, “partner” of Mayor Steven Reed- who has earned nearly one hundred thousand dollars per year for doing what appears to be very little nothing at all.

CBS affiliate WHP21‘s Jason Bristol has been doing an incredibly commendable job in his coverage of the scam. (Catch up on the details here, here, here, here, here and here.)

If you’ve got a free ninety minutes-or-so, please, for the good of your city, attend this meeting.

It’s sort-of the “must see movie of the year” of public meetings happening right now.

The iron is hot. Now’s the time to strike.

There will be a public participation time at the end of the meeting. Want to speak your mind? You should. Some tips:

Write out a few notes of the point(s) you want to communicate to council. They’re pretty strict on the 60 second rule, so it’s best to have your thoughts organized and concise. Plus, it’ll prevent you from stumbling over your words and possibly forgetting a point you want to make.

Rehearse what you’ll say before you say it. Again, this is to make sure your point is heard loud and clear.

Be brief- but effective. Your most effective time in speaking to council is within the first thirty seconds which you are at the mic. Make sure your thoughts are organized and planned out and you’ll maintain full attention from your audience.

Be firm- but polite. Council meetings have a tendency to get quite emotional and heated. Don’t succumb to the desire to yell and make a scene. Your points will be much better recieved if they’re pleasant to listen to. (Remember- it’s not what you say; it’s how you say it.)

With election season brewing and us as a city being on the verge of what will certainly be one of the most important elections in recent Harrisburg history, now is the time to speak our minds as a community and let our council know just exactly what we expect from them.

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