I am being criticized for votes taken by the Franklin Common Council at its last meeting regarding Kayla’s Playground…for merely writing about what happened.

Because I wrote on my blog I also included my opinion. That’s what a blog is. Commentary.  I base my commentary on the facts I have at hand, what I know.

Sadly our locally elected officials and many folks on social media don’t know the difference between a blog and an ordinary newspaper article.

Folks, this isn’t tough stuff. The Council met. Their meeting was recorded. The audio was placed on the city’s website. I listened to the audio. And then I wrote about the discussion and the subsequent votes on an item to improve Franklin’s incredibly popular project, Kayla’s Playground.

And then one alderwoman played la stupida.  Kristen Wilhelm, clearly on the record for all the world, or at least Franklin, to hear did something incredibly dumb.

She blamed the messenger. That would be me. She never names me in her countless attempts on social media to cover her posterior. I am referred to disrespectfully as “this blogger” or “a friend of the mayor’s.”

Kristen, I have a name. I’m a private citizen residing in Franklin. Not to mention I’m your constituent. You kinda work for me.  Even though you lost my vote a long time ago, you still represent me.  You may not like it, but it’s true.

I’m not an elected official. I have no ability to cast a vote at a public meeting. I have no taxing or spending authority. What I do have is a First Amendment right. I can write. And that bugs the hell out of Wilhelm and others. They’d prefer nobody pays attention or says anything about their shenanigans.

I didn’t vote to reduce the number of tables for visitors to Kayla’s Playground.

I didn’t vote against the original recommendation to have 12 tables at Kayla’s Playground.

I didn’t suggest a delay in what should have been a simple exercise to improve Kayla’s Playground.

I didn’t use a phony excuse of fiscal conservatism in my defense of delaying the improvements. Kristen Wilhelm is, as Johnny Carson once described, “to the left of mayonnaise.” She’s not fooling me and many others that the save her butt delay tactic was because she’s such a good friend of the taxpayers.

The fact is Wilhelm and others on the Council have tried everything possible to throw thumb tacks on the road to Kayla’s Playground because they didn’t get their way. The mayor did, and since they despise the mayor they don’t want him to succeed in any way possible, and that includes tables at a park. They think people don’t get it but they do. They are wise to this petty garbage.

So go ahead. Blame the guy with the keyboard. Keep making yourselves look entirely foolish in the process. In the end, you are the ones accountable.

And speaking of Kayla’s Playground, let’s end on a very nice note.