A public commenter weighing in remotely at Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting provided some unintentional but enjoyable comic relief. With technology involved, there’s always more room for proceedings to end up a farce.
“Good evening, commissioners — can you hear me okay?” asked attorney Jordan, representing UNITE HERE Local 11.
A chorus of “yes” came in reply.
But thirty seconds into the comment:
“Joran. Jordan. I’m so sorry,” the City Clerk Melissa Crowder cut in. “We’re having a hard time hearing you. If you could just put your phone a little bit away from the speaker so we can hear you clearly?”
Jordan adjusted. “Is this better?”
“Can you speak for a few seconds so I can evaluate?” Crowder prompted, sounding like a soundcheck tech.
“Yes, check one, check two. Is that okay?”
“Maybe a little bit further away from the telephone? Let’s try again.”
“Hello?”
“Are you using a headset?”
“Um…no I am not. How about now? Is it too loud? Or how loud?”
“We’re getting an echo, so it’s a little difficult to understand — and you’re speaking really fast. Can we try one more time, please?”
“Yes. Is this better?”
“Yes,” they replied — politely — but the audio had not changed. Still, Jordan forged ahead, speaking quickly to fit his comment into the time limit.
“What stops the rooftop, claiming to be a temporary for events, from becoming routinely staged there? The real possibility is that there would be 400 young adults drinking and partying on the roof as part of the hotel’s activation. Second…”
A phone went off in the chambers. Jordan paused for a moment before continuing. It was loud and not very clear. It sounded like he said:
“It is unclear if the noise study… speaking at louder levels due to lumbar defects this is well documented and crowds that are drunk young and at nightclubs tend to speak louder. You may want to consider a revised noise level,” Jordan boomed.
Then came another interruption — not because of the audio, but from the lighting department.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” said Chair Michael Lombardi. “But whoever’s… the light over there is really, really making it hard for me right now. Can someone turn that off?”
It felt like an SNL sketch: a speaker delivering noise warnings while unintelligible on the mic, with the chair blinded by a rogue spotlight.
Still, Jordan managed to get his main points across — rooftop party risk, flaws in the noise study, and the need for stronger enforcement. The performance may have been rocky, but the message landed. Eventually.
Unite Here has a monster size influence on our city. They are not just some random Union but rather social engineers across the whole country. People all across the world are being ripped off coming here so that they could pay this Sky High tax so that that money could be pumped to other people other than City residents. Unite Here represents political corruption at its absolute worse. Shame on anybody who takes their money! Unite Here is closely aligned with the Democratic Socialist of America. Make no mistake that these people are evil! They are big time supporters of… Read more »
Humor is a powerful tool for connecting people and in the context of public meetings, it can help bridge the gap between government and citizens. Geometry Dash
Unite Here Local 11, that’s the union that tried to shove monster hotel 8850 Sunset down our throats.