Town square politics
January 30, 2008 by Althea Paulson
There’s a tasty irony in the fact that although Bainbridge Island doesn’t have either a civic center or a community gathering place, next week we’ll be reviving that cornerstone of old-time democracy, the Town Hall meeting. When the rest of the country is watching results of Super Tuesday, islanders will gather at the American Legion Hall to talk about local politics and issues.
Though Bainbridge Island’s town square may not exist in three-dimensional reality, it thrives in our grocery stores aisles, our coffee shop conversations and in email and blog exchanges. Without a physical gathering place, we’ve long been a collection of independent personalities, whose “leave me alone and I’ll do the same” credo leads to periods of political disengagement, punctuated by outbreaks of citizen fury when City Hall, an outsider, or a neighbor infringes too far on someone’s sense of territory or values.
With population growth and more muscular City efforts in planning for it, those outbreaks have become nearly constant. City Hall has, quite naturally, reacted by withdrawing from public view. Officials spin even the most benign decisions when they are challenged (or think they might be). They don’t own up to their mistakes. Citizens become suspicious, believing that a secretive government has something to hide. They speculate and accuse, and inundate local officials with public records requests, emails, criticism and demands.
Under seige, staff and electeds have occasionally turned on each other. The resulting accusations, scoldings and hurt feelings have made Council meetings painful to watch. Trust is one of the biggest problems facing our City government.
People have come up with ideas to elevate the public conversation and nurture trust. Some have been lighthearted, like the Civility hat on the Council dais. Others have been controversial—last fall’s “Heart of Leadership” retreat for administration and Council struck many of us as poorly timed and touchy-feely (the retreat is referred to in some public documents as “HOL”–I kid you not). Still, something has been working because the atmosphere has been fresher since the first of the year. At least publicly, members of the different branches of government seem to be working hard on trusting each other and being trustworthy.
That leaves you and me. Being suspicious of the “guvmint” is as American as apple pie, and we islanders proudly carry on that tradition. We don’t trust each other all that much either.
Our elected officials know the public is part of the trust equation, and a crucial element in a healthier government. After the frequent citizen venting at City Council public comment periods last year, you can almost understand why the Mayor would want to include a few “community leaders” in her lay-down-your-armor HOL workshop. In the end, ethics and law prevailed, and all of the citizens were disinvited. And some good probably came out of the HOL.
But the public is still suspicious.
The good news is that the citizen-initiated Town Hall meeting is a sign that of-the-people democracy is very much alive around here. The City won’t be facilitating a pre-determined outcome or hiring more consultants this time. Our electeds have been invited to join the discussion along with the rest of us. So far, according to the meeting’s press release, ”several council members have indicated they would attend.”
The meeting will be moderated by Kitsap News Group’s Charlie Bermant, who lives on the island and covers county issues for KNG. It will be interesting to see if he and the American Legion’s Fred Scheffler can put together a format that pushes participants beyond complaining and finger-pointing (though we all have plenty of complaints and fingers) into honest debate and discussion.
This community is full of competing interests and values. Some islanders hope they can stop population growth altogether, while others would like to build homes for the nearly 7000 newcomers we have to be ready for by 2025 under the state GMA. Some of us like Winslow just the way it is, while others want more parking, higher density and a more vibrant retail and business scene. Some believe we’ll have better government if we switch to a City manager/Council form of government.
Our differences have made agreement hard to come by. Dissatisfaction with City decisions and the way they’re made has prompted many of us to get involved in civic life. We press our arguments at the desks of City Hall, in public hearings, and in the courts.
In the struggle to watchdog our government and our neighbors, there’s a temptation to oppose just about everything (or, in our genteel Northwest vernacular, “raise some concerns.”) Our system of government favors this style of activism, which inserts the government–legislative, judicial and executive branches–as the mediator between citizens, who then feel no responsibility to understand anyone else’s point of view. We’ve seen the results: political stalemate and governmental dysfunction.
This meeting is an opportunity to try something new. We can talk to each other. No one is telling us we can’t.
The people who’ve been working on this event might serve as our inspiration. Politically, they’re both conservative and liberal. They’ve been adversaries on some issues. But they’ve found common cause in their desire to create more accountability and openness in City government, as well as greater receptivity to ideas from all islanders, not just insiders or those who complain the loudest.
The meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, February 5 at the Colin Hyde Post #172 of the American Legion, 7880 NE Bucklin Hill Road, Bainbridge Island. For more information contact Frederick J. Scheffler, (206) 842-2100 or FJSUSA@bainbridge.net. BITV will film it for broadcast at a later date.
Althea Paulson — nice plug for the town-hall meeting. However, what is ironic is your statement: “There’s a tasty irony in the fact that although Bainbridge Island doesn’t have either a civic center or a community gathering place, next week we’ll be reviving that cornerstone of old-time democracy, the Town Hall meeting.” Bainbridge has numerous meeting places such as our civic groups, BPA, City Hall, churches galore, high school gymnasiums, fire stations, coffee shops, bakeries etc. Perhaps you didn’t express it clearly but BI certainly has locations where social discussion and interaction goes on every day.
What is it we need to have, the grand meeting place ($$$$$ — the new Winslow Never) that would come at great taxpayer expense — a Bainbridge Island Meeting Hall and Performing Arts Center? If we could actually use the public and private facilities we have, we have ample locations for large meetings and we don’t need a new civic project.
What will be interesting about this event is that with a great deal of luck the meeting will be beamed into the homes (BITV-12/22) of citizens who were not present. Just as we get to see our local Council meetings played over and over again, this meeting — if funding is found — cab be witnessed by hundreds or thousands of additional citizens.
At the current time there is no firm plan for the filming of the event although there are those working towards that goal.
After 9/11 the absence of a true civic gathering place was abundantly clear. People wandered around trying to figure out where they could go to be together as a community. It really never happened though there were all kinds of gatherings in churches and homes and some of the locations you’re talking about.
We have a collection of large and small meeting places. Not the same thing at all as a real community center. Not that we’re going to get one any time soon—it’s pretty much off the table as far as I can see.
What is it we need, our version of a King Dome or the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts? The high school gym must seat 500 or more. Do we build a civic center for the once-in-a-decade attack event? Assuming the need arises in warmer weather, we also have the stadium space at BHS or waterfront park.
As I recall, the New England town meetings would be held in simple churches, not gigantic cathedrals with large meeting halls or centers. The fact is this is a small island that has been blessed with many meeting places at the ready for meetings. Most meeting halls here on BI sit empty the majority of the time.
We all want the ideal but it works much better if we are innovative using the vast spaces we have. I do hope plans for a mega community center stays off the table indefinitely. Less government is better government.
Nice job, Althea. Fred and I will meet Friday to put together a format that will work. I’ll post any relevant details to you. One will be when it actually starts. We’d like to start the event itself at 7 but open the doors a little earlier to allow people to interact. Which is the point.
In the meantime, anyone (except for one of you, you know who you are) who wants to submit a question can shoot me a note at lastbassetstanding@yahoo.com. Any other comments are welcome. One that stands out for me: There are so many issues, do we just pick a few to explore in depth or just go with the flow?
See ya all there.
How the meeting is run will be critical to the success. If this becomes another infomational moment by Mayor K and Council selling the taxpayers what they have already paid for on stealthy projects and the line up of consultant, the meeting will be a failure. Also, if the event runs like a Woody Allen movie of quips and borscht-circuit humor, the event will fail. Aim for the granular and skip the heavily process managed event like we saw during election time.
These are general guidance for our local government that will be entered as questions by attendees:
Beware: CB stop reading ~~~~~
1. Less government is best. Taxpayers will not sit silently as the rate of city staff and budget grow at current rates.
2. Provide key services (safety, security and infrastructure) at the lowest possible tax burden to taxpayers.
3. The city has no mandate to be in the public-housing role. It should have a program of tax incentives for accessory dwelling units (ADU) and other free-market options to efficiently meet housing needs.
4. Support of the arts on Bainbridge should be in the private sector and not funded by taxpayers. Bainbridge has ample local private wealth to support the arts if that is what the donors want. Funding of Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council should be left to private donations.
5. The city must not enter into special-interest private partnerships that cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in time and staff support. The city’s “partnership” with the private-party memorials have cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
6. Real diversity of appointments to commissions and boards must be put in place. The city must end the practice of barring appointment of fiscal and social conservatives from governmental advisory committees and boards.
7. Winslow Tomorrow must be terminated in its current configuration. Put the spike in the spending of another dime on the garage boondoggle project.
8. Recent COBI amendment to the political sign ordinance is both unconstitutional and unworkable. The ordinance should be revoked.
9. The city must honor its Comcast financial obligations to public-access BITV-12.
10. The city council must refrain from the wasting of council time and staff in passing ideological and foreign-policy resolutions.
11. The city council must take positive attempts to minimize the current atmosphere of staff pushing land-use issues to the illogical extreme and resulting litigation phase.
12. Transparency in government is essential: Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Damn. I had the Borscht-belt script all written, and my Groucho hat-and-moustache set was back from the cleaners. Some of these pointers make marginal sense, so my question is: Who are you and what have you done with Olsen?
Charlie,
I understand your inclination to want to focus this meeting, but I also think there is a need to keep it open to people’s different comments.
One of the problems on the island is that City Hall has too carefully controlled the public comment, and the public commissions for that matter. This became uncomfortably obvious back in November when 30 people signed up for their 3 minutes of the “15 minute” comment period. In short, that people were using the only public forum they knew of to try to make their comments heard.
For that reason, I think it is important that you ask people to be succinct and to their point, but that you also allow people to express themselves. if after an hour and a half there is still much to be said, then perhaps we schedule a second session. It would be counter-productive to have many people come away feeling like they did not have a chance to have their say.
I also believe a little humor, like your last comment to Jim, is also in order. Jim says lots of good things in the comment here. One of the great things about forums like this is that we can get to know our fellow islanders better. The problem is that the civic dialogue has been so constrained, perhaps purposefully so, that it has driven people apart. Hopefully this is an event where a variety of people speak up, and where we hear different view points. Is there a way that you can draw out what may possibly be different views?
Althea,
Your writing has never been cleaner or better. Excellent. Amusing to watch some of the banter here.
Thank you,
Joel
Rod, you bring up what has been the most important question here, how we handle the direct interaction between the people and the leaders. If we have 100 people with 60 questions about 30 topics some of them will overlap. So the moderator needs to screen and ask the questions and control the flow. This sacrifices some of the democracy of the gathering at the expense of expediency. On the other hand, we need to have some direct discussion between people and the council. Maybe we schedule a “free for all” period where both sides can speak in moderated discussion for one minute or less. Fred and I will meet at 5 p.m. today, so suggestions before then are helpful. Otherwise go to lastbassetstanding@yahoo.com.
A number of people have been emailing me asking who of the Council and Mayor’s office will be in attendace at the town-hall meeting. Councilwoman Franz notified me she will not be in attendance. If there is low elected-leader attendance, the appeal of the event will drop off.
Althea, do your sources or insiders in the Hall know who has agreed to attend?
Thanks,
No, but I’m told both papers will be there…and will likely report on any electeds in attendance.
…or not in attendance.
Councilman Barry Peters rogered that he would be there and he said he heard through the gravevine that others Councilmembers will be there.
The two papers will be there ~~~ Zzzzzz !!
At this point it looks like all the electeds except Kjell and Hilary will be there. Hilary had a vacation already scheduled with her family. It sounds like Kjell is in town but simply “doesn’t like conflict”.
The event will be filmed, but for showing at a different time. Putting it on the air simultaneously costs more money and staff time than people could afford.
I think that the approach of a moderator with a roving microphone will allow most people the chance to stand up and ask their question or make their point without feeling like they are under the gun or have been pre-selected out.
I agree with Rod S. on the time-to-talk issue. I have seen it used regularly as a method of controlling the public and information by our governments. It may make for a long meeting but people are free to leave and these events do not happen all that often (moderator is good however). My background in news and media starts in the early 70’s and it was well know back then that it is quite often more important “what you don’t tell people or allow to come out” as to what you do bring forth (heart of an issue with local papers) also a reason for the importance of the Internet as demonstrated by this blog. Also the reason for a few domain names to be applied in the future when the time is right: realgovernment.org, enginesofchange.com, diogenesaward.org and a few others. Although Bainbridge Island is not the focus of these projects it’s stories and those of our leaders, along with those of all levels of government are part of the inspiration for the need.
As for the tone of the meeting I am sitting hear trying to deciding whether to wear my Diogenes outfit with my gray hat of ethics, my grim reaper outfit or my street cloths.
What do you think Althea?
Ha! I guess it depends on where you’re planning to sit, Dave. I’m sure there will be plenty of Diogenes-style truthseekers, some overthrow-the-monarchy types and lots of plain ol’ folks. Me, I’m wearing the Northwest uniform (though not so much seen around the island anymore): polar fleece and sensible shoes.
You can at least put a “Press Pass” in you hat so your adoring public knows who you are.
Be styl’in
Althea Paulson, the better half of the Woodward and Bernstein duo from the Buzz inquiries, will be holding court and writing her version for Fear and Loathing at Colin Hyde Post. Can’t wait for the “EXTRA” to hit the presses.
Why does Olsen always get the last word?