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As emotions run wild, deer rants under fire
(by Sue Reid - February 16, 2011)
As emotions run wild, deer rants under fire
By SUE REID
Solon Councilman William I. Russo said last week he will not tolerate people making blatant misstatements on the topic of deer management during future discussion before City Council's safety and public properties committee.
Mr. Russo, who chairs the committee, said the recent discussion of a proposed pilot bowhunting program for the city was marred by outlandish claims made by residents. "People rant endlessly with misstatements, and other people take that as truths," he said, noting that the committees meetings are televised on local cable. "It is not fair that people think they can make any statement they want," he said.
"People can do that at a council meeting, but I won't give them that opportunity twice," Mr. Russo said, referring to the next safety meeting.
"People viewing the meetings take these statements as truth, and this chair will not tolerate that," he said.
As an example, he said, someone yelled from the crowd that contraception for deer is allowed in Ohio. According to the Ohio Administrative Code, it is not allowed in the state, he said, and the only situation where it may be authorized is for scientific research. "Someone yelled out, 'That's not true; it's allowed,'" Mr. Russo said.
"At the next meeting, the question can be asked," he said of contraceptives, "but we are not going to be stating that that is allowed." Anyone who continues to state differently will be asked to sit down, he said.
"It is a public forum, and people are allowed to give their views and opinions," Councilman and committee member Edward H. Kraus said. "Our public does well from deciphering truths from untruths. People have the right to exercise free speech."
"I'm talking about the committee meeting and not council," Mr. Russo said. "If they want to talk at council, they can. When we are conducting committee business, it's quite different."
"Not everyone has all the facts," Mr. Kraus said. "I've misstated things before. We are all human."
Councilman and committee member Richard A. Bell said it's important to make sure the committee recognizes that the public is allowed to speak at its meetings. "There are things that come up here that allow for public comment," he said. "We ask people to tell us what's on their mind. I have no problem allowing them to have an open forum."
Mr. Bell said some comments are clearly exaggerated and do not come from a factual basis, "but I have no problem allowing them to speak."
Mr. Russo said the vast majority of the people who got up to speak last month were concise and had the facts. "Others made misstatements knowingly," he said.
Another example, Mr. Russo said, was a statement made about a deer being shot by an arrow in Twinsburg and running out in traffic into a car driven by a student and killing him. He said Twinsburg police would not verify that story, and, if it had occurred, it was outside of hunting season and would have been poaching.
"The bottom line is, it's a committee meeting, and our purpose is to gather the information and pass the recommendation onto council, and council is the only body that can put something in place," Mr. Russo said.
"There were several people there who did a good job of laying out their case," he said. "I can respect that, and I have no problem listening to someone's point of view. But when someone blatantly misstates the facts to inflame emotions, I don't agree with that."
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