Will Armstrong was "unaware" that he was being rude or condescending....."no one ever told him that!" That is a blatant lie. I for one have told him several times in e-mails after I have watched the city council meetings on line. Mr. Armstrong struts and postures and rolls his eyes when the one member of the council who cares about the taxpayer makes any comment. And he is not much better when people from the audience present any opinion that is not in tandem with the mayor's thinking.

I find Will Armstrong a dispicable representative of our fine City. We deserve better and hopefully the voters will assure that is so with the next election.

Everyone knows, or should know, that all "right-thinking people" agree with the Mayor, whoever that happens to be.

I think, in the best interest of the citizens of Victoria, the mayor and members of the City Council should watch the meetings on Channel 15 as a lot of us do. I believe if they watch it with an open mind, they will see rudeness and condecension displayed and perhaps correct these behaviors. I think that more than an apology is in order. I think an attitude adjustment is called for.

I guess Mr. Williams hears what he wants to hear. It appears to me that some of council simply gets frustrated with Mr. Pruitt. For heavens sake, he is there every meeting talking about anything and everything. And until they started this time limit, Mr. Pruitt would go on an on for 20 minutes. The mayor and council need to find a way to not let that frustration spill over on to others or cause them to lose their composure with Mr. Pruitt. At the same time this concerned citizen group need to find a spokesperson that can deliver well though out and concise points. I agree with crabbylady that being on council is a tough job and issues are not as simple as we all would like them to be.

There is no reason whatsoever for elected city officials to be rude or condecending to the citizens who have elected them. The offices in government are offices of serving the public not lauding over it as in a monarchy. Elected officials are public servants not local celebs.
Now in all fairness to the city council members and the mayor, the truth is that most citizens are not aware of all of the issues or problems that lay on the table before these officials. Likewise the council is not bound to make every issue or decision before them public, that is why they have both open and closed meetings. Many times they do understand what is brought before them, and they may even agree about the need or urgency to act on them but there can be other things in the work that can cause a delay. Money and funding for things can also be caught up in delays especially when they are coming from grant requests. The public does need to know that being an elected official on the city council is not an easy job. There is a great deal of personal time and leg work that each effective member invests in carring out the duties of the office. Even the mayor is bound by the council and has little power on his or her own when it comes to acting upon the issues brought before the council. The council has a huge scope of responsibilities to take care of including city properties, parks and public recreation facilities, city streets, water and sewer, city law enforcement, allocating of city funds, and generating needed funds for city projects as well, just to name a few. The council works on a majority vote to enact projects and policies. The public does need to understand the responsibilities that these officials take on when we elect them into the office, and treat them with the respect due them and with the understanding that things are not always as easy and simple as we think they should be.
That said, it is also the responsibility of the members of the council, the mayor, and all elected officials to remember that they work for the people that have elected them and likewise should treat them with a mutual respect. After all...if they don't do the job that they were elected to do and they refuse to respectfully listen to and answer to those citizens that have elected them...then they can be VOTED OUT NEXT ELECTION. Ahhhhh democracy.

I applaud the Victoria Advocate! For the time in a long time the Advocate has reported something negative about the majority of the city council. Please keep reporting the facts. The Charter Amendement Commission was rude and condescending to the Mr. Pruitt and The Mayor has been rude and downright mean to council member David Hagan who has voted against several positions held by the Mayor. Instead of having the courtesy to let Mr. Hagan express his opinion, the Mayor frequently cuts him off, snaps at him, and glares at him while he is speaking. Armstrong's behavior has been childish at best. While I appreciate the Mayor's apology, I hope that he will take it one step further and apologize directly to Russell Pruitt and to David Hagan. He owes an apology to both men.