My letter to editor in Cit Pat 11/22/05:

County commission

locked out the public

RIVES JUNCTION -- Several important corrections need to be made regarding the newspaper's coverage of the illegal lockout incident at a recent county commission meeting. Three Jackson County citizens were illegally locked out of a public meeting for 20 minutes, which violates the Open Meetings Act. No one has apologized verbally or in writing to any of us.

The newspaper also reported that I called and someone let us in. We were never able to call anyone to let us in -- we tried several commissioners and got voice mail. If some volunteers had not arrived at this meeting early, we would have all been locked out completely. One volunteer finally let us in, wondering where we were.

I had been given a cell phone number by one of the commissioners to call if the door was locked. Instead, I got his voice mail. When I asked him after the meeting why he didn't have his cell phone on, he said he never turns it on during meetings because that would be rude.

It seems the Jackson County commission would like us to all go away. Instead, these types of incidents only demean the entire commission, harm democracy and strengthen our resolve to stop selling shelter pets to research.

-- Judy Dynnik

Jackson County Volunteers Against Pound Seizure