I have attended enough F&M “public forums” to know first hand how these “forums” are conducted. What they really are, are well-planned professionally-run presentations of the current project that F&M wants the public to accept unconditionally.
They are strictly controlled meetings in which the administrator in charge (usually Keith Orris) knows in advance of the meeting who is in favor and who is not; the former are allowed to speak, the latter are not. Any ideas that do not conform to F&M’s ideas are stifled. Other views or ideas are not solicited or permitted to be aired at the meeting…
F&M tries to equate their “public meetings” with “open hearings.” They are public meetings in that the public may attend. “Open hearings,” that is, meetings in which various viewpoints may be presented, they are not.
