"LA BAMBA" richie havens

Went to a very different meeting Tuesday evening on St. Clair St. Seems Council member DiNallo, Hach, Flock and Fodor were invited to the monthly HOLA meeting. All but Mr. Fodor attended.

Now first off there were over 120 adults present at the meeting normal for the monthly meeting. The only time we can get that many people at a meeting is if there is a scandal at one of the schools.

The purpose of the meeting was to inform council members of the plight of deportation of many members of families in the Painesville area. As you can imagine there were some heart wrenching stories told, and we can deal with those in a future post.

Now first Mrs. DiNallo introduced herself and proceeded to tell the audience she was teaming up with Ms. Dahlberg to present a resolution to Painesville council. ( I seem to remember something of this nature in the past) Mrs. DiNallo if you want to pass a resolution put it in front of council with no outside help.

Mr. Hach mentioned his monthly block watch meetings, as well as other meeting in his Ward.

Than Mr. Flock, who I must say had reached a conclusion that these people at the meeting had a misunderstanding about the powers as well as duties of a city councilperson. First he explained that the only jurisdiction  that council members had was passing and enforcing city ordinances. Seems some of these people believe they have an input with the police on who the police can and cannot detain.
Mr. Flock explained the immigration problem as well as solution has to come from the Federal government and he would forward these letters to our representatives in the Congress as well as the Senate. He ended his presentation with the JFK quote, "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." He also made them aware of his monthly meeting at Elm St. and welcomed them to attend as well as city council meetings on the first and third Monday's of the month. Explaining to them to get involved in this community.

He was well received as well as the other two council members in attendance. No shouting demands or disrespect was shown.

Finally our new school superintendent  Me. Shepard was at the meeting and explained speaking in Spanish, how important an education was to their children, and how their children were his children also.

This may  open a new dialogue between our newest members to the community of Painesville. Now if we can only control the people who somehow believe they will "Self-Deport," as well as the people who "Demand Rights" for these people , we might get somewhere.

I have to believe that the only solution to this problem is our newest residents must win over the hearts and minds of this community.

Seems Ms. Dahlberg couldn't attend this meeting?  Leaving me feeling very fortunate.