Thanks for the link. It sounds a little like something I witnessed recently. I went to a couple of public meetings held to help BLM write their five-year plan for land in our area. They held a series of meetings in different locations to get public comment. I went to a couple of them.
The folks were divided into groups and asked a series of questions. All comments were gathered on large sheets of paper to be condensed later into a document. There were a few normal people there, with good comments. Those comments were a small number of the total, however.
I noticed that the mix of people was similar in every group, and at both of the meetings I attended. A few locals. Lots of environmental group members from out of town. Some BLM interns, and some BLM employees “in plain clothes” in each group acting as if they were ordinary group members.
The resultant comments were very similar group to group and at both meetings. My impression was that the BLM would be able to write up the report they wanted to write from the comments they had gathered. Nothing earth-shaking, nothing surprising, but they were able to control the process very easily. There were some folks there who were pro-rancher or pro-private enterprise and their concerns were written down too but they were lost in the crowd of other comments.
It was overall a very “nice” meeting, but very tightly controlled just the same while giving the impression of being very spontaneous. Had I not attended two meetings in two different areas I wouldn’t have noticed how controlled. (And my wife and I made it a point to be in separate groups and were able to compare notes). And overhearing some of the casual conversations is how I figured out who some of these people were.
Same thing here in Atlanta. The regional mass transit system wanted to raise rates and cut services. They did exactly what you described.
Its a little odd to me that mass transit isn't being supported during a Democrat administration. Where's mah pie?