Last night the new Moscow city council met for the first time, and after they were all sworn in, nice and tidy like, a new council member (Aaron Ament) made a motion to have a moratorium placed on all “conditional-use permit applications for all educational institutions and commerical schools in the downtown sector” The Lewiston Morning Tribune reported on the meeting. “I hate to have to spring this on the council,” Ament said, springing it on the council. This was all about New St. Andrews, period. That motion then passed. The vote was three to three, and so the new mayor, Nancy Chaney, broke the tie in favor of a moratorium.
But then, two hours later, the motion was reconsidered because of little old things like legal requirements; apparently there are rules that require notification for a public hearing on issues like this. And so this time, Nancy Chaney voted the other way, and the moratorium was removed.
Two very good things about this. The new members of the council who are hostile to religious freedom (“Diversity until we get some!”) showed their hand in the first ten minutes of their time on the council. The second good thing is that they played that hand with oven mitts on. After a time, it appears that ideological malice can start to affect your competence.