The City Council on Monday night unanimously approved funding for the Safe Haven homeless facility, but that wasn't good enough for one audience member.

The young woman's timing was off, but her message was direct: The mayor should go to hell, and she didn't appear to have much respect for his mother either.

As a humble observer, I continue to wonder why the city hasn't tried to sell ads for the meetings, now that they're repeatedly televised on Cablevision channel 19. As I wrote in an earlier article, the city could just borrow USA network's slogan: City Hall - Characters welcome. Regardless, it should be interesting to see how the city handles the broadcasting of that segment.

To be fair to all involved, the pressure was a little abnormally high on this homeless vote. Some council members had apparently doubted whether it should use some of its annual federal grant money to help build up homeless facilities -- worrying to some degree that St. Joseph is trying to create a big-rock-candy-mountain south of downtown.

Dozens of advocates for the homeless and the facilities had attended the last two council meetings, and it seemed as though they'd succeeded in turning back any council opposition. Indeed, the council voted 9-0 Monday on its annual CDBG/HOME program, including money for Community Missions' planned Safe Haven homeless facility, a companion to the Juda House permanent housing facility at 700 Olive St.

Over. Done. Moving on.

The council was going through the mundane matter of attaching a lease agreement for the new baseball team at Phil Welch Stadium when a young woman approached the podium and spoke.

She said she'd watched the last meeting on Cablevision, and she scolded the mayor for how he spoke to another council member (I could only guess that she was referring to Councilwoman Joyce Starr. If the young woman had watched very many council meetings, she would've known that Mr. Shearin and Ms. Starr almost never get along).

She talked about how important it is to help the homeless, and that she has been a drug addict and had her own problems. She said she was embarrassed that he was mayor, and that he should go to hell.

"I'll meet you there," Mr. Shearin said.

She had been on her way out the door, but she stopped and said, "Oh no, I'm going to heaven." Then she told Mr. Shearin he was the son of a (female dog).

A friend and a police officer made sure she found the elevator.

For further background on the Safe Haven shelter, read these articles by News-Press reporter/columnist Alonzo Weston.

http://www.stjoenews.net/news/2008/may/04/council-set-vote-homeless-shelter-funding/

http://www.stjoenews.net/news/2008/feb/12/shelter-gets-funding/