todd vainisi wrote:I don't understand the threat part. Surely, this neighbor has not made threats against the ball players, right? It just doesn't make sense - the neighbor can't be the threat because that would be against the law.
Todd
City Hall can no longer comment on this nor should they have ever commented in
the way they did. Yet another fumble that has gotten out of control.
The short story assembled from many sources.
He had made veiled threats and yelled at kids and some of them yelled back. This
prompted the city to have a PRIVATE discussion with the resident. At that meeting a
"professional" deemed the resident was at the end of his rope, and anything was possible
including potential violence towards people in the park.
The City is worried of a potential
HIPAA* violation, though I find it hard to picture as no
"medical findings" were made public, merely the opinion of a professional about what
could be possible if the resident were to go over his breaking point.
At that point the Mayor really had no choice but to close the park, AND/OR slap a
restraining order on the resident. After all, if the resident had snapped and hurt someone it
would have come out that the City was well aware of any potential problems.
During some of the conversations/comments about the resident's personal mental health
were made by people in the administration and around the issue who were not qualified
to use the terms that have been thrown around. I have not heard a quote from the resident
that included words like "hurt those kids" etc. So I am not sure he has done anything but
continuously bitch, and that is not illegal. He may have also made overtures to the Mayor
at a council meeting but I do not see it in any reports.
City Hall has never handled this correctly nor been able to put out a message that sounds
like anything more than fear, overreacting and re-enforcing bad behavior. It is my
understanding this is the same person that complains about football in the park, the little
links, and an empty little links. His backyard has been a park/tennis court as long as he
has been there I believe.
While some talk about the man being a friend of Mike's, perhaps he is, but I have never
known Mayor Summers to let that get in the way of anything. As I have pointed out many
times, Mike and I have been friends since 2nd grade, on the same baseball team for years,
and I would say we are still friends, though I am sure it is tested regularly. He has never
shown any special favors for me, if anything I would say he overcorrects for our history.
The city should buy the resident's house, put him in another house of equal value being foreclosed on in the city, let him keep any profit, and put the courts back in. A community is what is best for everyone, not any one person. The city should be working in opening the parks, not shutting them down.
Stay tuned, I am sure they never spoke with anyone at the new location, or near where
they are moving the courts within Kauffman Park. I am kind of shocked at how badly all of
this has been handled again, and again, and again, and...
* HIPAA
The HIPAA privacy rule sets a national standard for protecting the privacy of an individual's health information. The privacy rule allows an individual to set restrictions on who can access her health records and any relevant information contained therein. Protected health information, or PHI, is information about a person's health that is deemed to be individually identifiable in that a person could be identified through the information contained in the health records. The privacy rule restricts the release, use and transfer of protected health information. Patients can also gain access to their own medical and health records and learn how their information may have been used, or to whom it may have been released.
Read more :
http://www.ehow.com/list_6761150_hipaa-confidentiality-rules.html?ref=Track2&utm_source=ask.
