"The Meeting"

The Tazer held its breath for as long a possible tonight in anticipation of the City Council meeting...

Here's what we got:

David Muhammad and his group, The Mentoring Center have been approved, by council vote, to move forward in talks with the City Manager about a contract for Muhammad and his group to help set up the office of violence prevention with a contract for about $250k total.

Ok, The Tazer has heard about Mr. Muhammad and his work. By all accounts, he and his group would be a good fit for this position under normal circumstances.

Problem is, these are not normal circumstances, which means the jury is out as far as how The Tazer takes this news.

This isn't a verdict one way or the other on you Mr. Muhammad. The Tazer is simply saying that you will be rated (and written about) based on your performance or the lack thereof. Good luck to you and your group.

Tazer Friend Corky Booze had quite the redletter night tonight, as he was busy on a number of topics...

Most interesting though, was his commentary on the council's ok of the city manager to move forward with contract talks dealing with Mr. Muhammad and his group.

Mr. Booze stated that he felt the council had basically pitted Muhammad's group against Rev. Shumake's RIA group, which, in his opinion, will cause major problems if you have a perceived competition.

The Tazer finds this angle interesting and had not considered it prior. Does the $175k or so that the council promised to Shumake's group come into play here? Will Muhammad's group nix that deal? Can they?

What becomes of Shumake and RIA? Will their ideas be taken and used? Also, what becomes of the momentum that was created with the boycott, which was moving ALL community agencies geared towards Violence Prevention to come to the table together?

Many questions are still left after tonight's activities. In the coming days, The Tazer will do it's best to get answers for you.

As of the time of this positing, the City Council is still meeting, currently arguing procedures and permits.

In other news, lots of "slick moves" by various council members tonight to position themselves correctly...you sly dogs you! Climb over that pile of dead bodies to get re-elected! No one will notice...or so you think....