Letter to the editor,
I would like to begin by thanking Bruce Brown for his letter in the Gazette (November 21, 2019) defending Tom Godbey's position regarding updating the city's ordinance dealing with the number of pets allowed in a household.
Secondly, there are still a few corrections to be made in regards to the newspaper article which Bruce referred to in his letter.
#1. Tom did not apologize to anyone other than the mayor and fellow city council members for getting them dragged into this through social media. Unfortunately, they are used to getting hammered on social media due to the problem with 3rd Street construction. They are a tough group!
#2. As far as "owned up to his mistake".....Tom did not say that he made a mistake in bringing this issue up. He merely EXPLAINED why he broached the subject of the pet ordinance at a recent city council meeting. Also, there were citizens at the November meeting whom spoke up and agreed that there is a problem with the number of pets allowed. It gets quite tiresome listening to dogs constantly barking in certain neighborhoods.
# 3 For the record, if the new ordinance would have passed, existing pets would not have been "taken away". They would have been grandfathered into the amended ordinance. In addition, Tom is not anti-pet. He had a dog growing up. We also have three grand-dogs that we take great pleasure in playing with!
Tom considers it an honor and a pleasure to serve you through his position on the city council.
Respectfully,
Karla Godbey
717 4th Street
Garretson SD
Editor's Response
Public office does come with criticisms, and at times, those may seem unwarranted. The public statement that Tom read to the council and the audience in attendance came across as it was portrayed in the article.
Anytime a council member feels unfairly represented, we consider it an honor for them to approach us in person and clarify their positions right away, because we feel that discussion makes all of us better serve our community. In this case, it would have been easy for Tom to get a copy of his statement to the Gazette prior to publication of the article, and it likely would have been reprinted word for word, as we want to ensure the community understands what its government is doing or attempting to do. As it was, the closest approximation to how the audience understood the statement was instead published. This was done, as always, with as much accuracy as possible.
It is not the Gazette’s goal to misrepresent any facts, and the fact is, most members of the community, while they want to ensure that they are not infringing on their neighbor’s rights, also want to ensure their own rights are not being infringed, either. Limiting the number of pets so severely is an infringement, and would punish good pet owners and not necessarily punish bad ones. It does only take one bad pet owner to ruin it for all of us, just as Tom said, and making changes to the ordinance with regards to noise infringement, which is the direction the council decided to take, is a much better way to approach the situation, and the Gazette is grateful to the Garretson City Council for being thoughtful and well-reasoned.
-Carrie Moritz, co-owner, Garretson Gazette
