Sandpoint mayor should resign due to divisiveness

At the Aug. 19 council meeting, the mayor attended while sick, and unmasked the majority of the time, while attempting to impose a forced mask mandate on all of Sandpoint, and those within a 5-mile radius outside its city limits, with the threat of heavy fines and jail time for non-compliance.

It doesn’t get much more hypocritical.

Mind you, this mayor has shown contempt for area residents who think differently than he, while standing with those tearing at the very foundations of America: Antifa and Black Lives Matter, two Marxist, police-demonizing organizations who have for months terrorized the people of our nation who have the misfortune of living in cities where they are left unarmed, and with de-funded police. Imagine Sandpoint’s fate if its mayor managed to impose similar Draconian gun control here. (Fun fact: hypocritically, post-meeting the mayor enjoyed a police escort to his vehicle.)

Further, the would-be mask mandate — proposed by a city councilperson who’s shown an alarming propensity for authoritarianism — was attempted without a true health emergency.

It’s the last straw.

I respectfully, and adamantly, call for the mayor’s resignation. Sandpoint, and the surrounding area residents whose lives would have also been impacted by a mandate from those they had no part in electing, deserve better.

Step down, Mr. Rognstad; it’s time for the divisiveness and rabid partisanship to cease, and it’s you who’s at its root.  

JODI GIDDINGS

Sagle