Lakeville City Council 'Atwitter' Over Tweets, Facebook Posts

Social media is causing a stir in Lakeville politics, and, no, it’s not an inadvertent Twitter photo that’s fueling the debate. Rather, the controversy surrounds what is perceived as too much, or too little communication.

Deliberate postings on new Council member Matt Little’s Facebook page drew the ire of fellow prompting her to publically admonish near the close of a recent council meeting.

“As a council here, obviously we’re a little bit broken on a few issues right now,” said LaBeau during the July 5 City Council meeting. “I just think that … we need to keep comments out of the social media that don’t align with what another council member actually said.”

LaBeau’s comments were in response to a Facebook posting by Little that stated: “My vision for the city of Lakeville has been that of safe neighborhoods, strong infrastructure, good schools, and smart policy-making that reduces costs and taxes to the citizens. I look forward to the day when Mayor Bellows and Councilmember LaBeau join in this vision.”

Though LaBeau didn’t publically name Little in her public comments, she confirmed they were aimed at Little during a follow-up interview.

Little responded to LaBeau’s veiled admonishment to a Pioneer Press reporter (via Twitter) by saying “It’s just my thought if you are going to take someone on that you should have the courage to identify who you’re talking (about).”

“I totally believe in freedom of speech,” said LaBeau. “But it does nobody any good if we have council members that won’t talk to each other and instead post social media attacks that are false.”

LaBeau expressed frustration about what she perceives to be an overall lack of communication between council members and believes that Little’s communication through social media can sometimes be detrimental.

“I just don’t think it’s advantageous,” she said. “A lot of community members think it’s tacky and unfortunate. It’s one thing to write a letter to the editor to express your views, but I don’t think it should be on social media.”

For his part, Little says using social media is an efficient way to communicate.

“I use it to let people know how I’m voting and why I’m voting the way I am,” he said. “Most of my media postings are just reiterations of what I already said in a meeting. The fact I disagree on some issues is not a surprise.”

But LaBeau says the communications are more than just disagreements.

“I certainly don’t believe everyone should agree and vote the same way,” said LaBeau. “I just think we have a real lack of respect and a real difference of opinion between us on how the council should function.”

LaBeau said she would prefer to be able to “bounce ideas” around with council members more frequently in order to accomplish more at meetings.

“I can call (Mayor Mark) Bellows and say what do you think of this, but I can’t share with Matt what Mark said,” LaBeau said. “But the rest … there’s no good communication with any of them. How do you ever get anything done if you can’t bounce some things off of each other? It’s so dysfunctional.”

Where LaBeau laments the dysfunctional lack of communication among council members between meetings Little would prefer any and all communications between council members take place publically during scheduled meetings.

“On some issues communication has been an issue,” said Little. “In terms of having the real meaty conversation … that has been lost. But most, if not all, of our communication should be in a meeting or a work session so everyone knows what is happening. I think it’s healthy that it all takes place in a work session.”

Little has gone so far as to request that work sessions are televised and recorded just as the regular council meetings are.

And while Little thinks confining discussions to work sessions and meetings is healthy, LaBeau thinks talking, tweeting and posting outside of meetings instead is part of what’s contributing to the ill communications.

“I just don’t think it’s healthy,” she said. “I think some of the comments take a lot of people back.”

“I don’t think (the posts) were profound or disrespectful,” said Little. “I think it’s in the best interest of the public to have as much information about what’s going on. I was elected on three specific things and I think it’s clear that I’m going to have to fight for those.”

Does Little think the council is broken?

“I do not agree that the process is broken,” he said. “It’s pretty normal for elected officials to disagree. This is how it works. It’s part of the process.”