At Monday’s Lincoln City City Council meeting, Mayor Susan Wahlke shouted down and cut off Councilor Riley Hoagland as he questioned city staff about spending tax dollars on a proposed project.
The project in question concerns a new technology that will replace human meter readers with radio transmitted readings of water usage.
Breaching council protocol, Wahlke demanded: “These technical questions should be presented before the meeting!”
When Hoagland attempted to defend his line of questioning, Wahlke shouted: “You can’t expect her to have the answer to these questions off the top of her head!”
Hoagland gave up on his line of questioning after the berating.
“I’m just trying to get things right to make the best decision for the people of Lincoln City,” Hoagland said in response to the incident.
The outburst can be seen in the publicly available council meeting video on the City’s website.
I call that “DEMOCRATIC BEHAVIOR” as a mayor.
Wacky Wahlke. Suppressor of info.
Oh please, he was being a huge pain in the butt the entire meeting and arguing over nonsense. Absolutely rude and demeaning to the seniors about their senior center activities, and acted like he was a professional pool tiler. Susan finally lost it and did what we all wished we could do – give him a proverbial slap in the face.
the senior center is funded with tax payer dollars and SHOULD be open to all, but it is not. It is not a private club. Not being open to all is a violation of state and federal laws.
On this particular incident Councilor Hoagland was correct! He was asking valid questions on costs of putting in radio water meters. This will be costing the residents additional expenses to put this in. All he was asking is questions of costs to do this. Of course the council passed this increase without finding all of the facts on Return of Investment. It seems that our city council always votes to raise costs to residents. When will this stop! The City Council needs to say NO on some of these costs or this town will just be a vacation rental city because no one can afford 6% increases in services EVERY a year.
It’s surprising to see such a lack of support for a council member that is asking important questions prior to the roll call. I would have liked to have heard the answers to his questions. Is this necessary? What is the cost to the taxpayers? He is doing an excellent job looking out for the people and we are lucky to have him.
Thank you Community member. I agree with you 100%
Mr. Hoagland has a propensity fof talking over people in a deprecative and obtuse manner, interrupting and demanding to be heard. There is a process, no matter how important the talking points, which doesn’t include rudeness.
Community Member nailed it. Thank you!
Can’t answer questions off the cuff? REALLY ? Sounds like biden’s
disease.
Riley is a thinker, I’ve seen him ask questions that need asked, and this
sci-fi water meter reading bs is just that.
There is a solution for being in a job you can’t handle-
Rude sounds like a synonym for inconvenient.
Thank you, Kevin.”biden’s disease” so true.