As of this writing , there is no longer any way to send a public comment in writing, even though, until Friday, there were still multiple hyperlinks on the City web site to a non-existent Comment Form. (The ones I monitor have now been removed.)
I have written to my colleagues that we need to remedy this immediately and I will propose a system at our next (1, December) meeting.
Although this article begins with public comment, it is not about public comment.
404s
Despite my reputation for crankiness, I notice broken links (referred to as ‘404s’ in the web world) and usually do not speak up. How do I notice them? SPACE MAGIC! Actually, there’s an automated gizmo anyone can use to be notified when a web site has broken links. So I ‘saw’ when the City’s Public Comment form stopped working.
What I used to do was immediately report/nag/complain when I found a ‘404’ and… get eyerolls and heavy sighs about how hard everyone is working and stop being a pain, etc. And then I got in touch with my inner chakras and realised that I don’t have to find them. Because eventually, residents will. All I have to do is give them a reason to look. 🙂
No microphone
On September 27 the City had that Community Meeting with this slide. And among the dozen or so unethical and scary legal concerns, from one of the presentation slides it looks as though the SURPRISE! hotel extends over where the new $1,000,000 restroom is placed. I mean the cement hasn’t even cured it’s so new. And sure enough there is a new building labeled ‘RR’ which looks like ‘relocated restroom’.
So I post about it and I get all this ricketa racketa. I’m told by the City “Of course we’re not moving the new bathrooms.” The tone is obviously patronising. Like: How silly of you to assume that we’d do something like that, JC!” OK, I’m silly.
OK, I’m silly…
So I fire up a totally amateur program, Google Earth, to check. And sure enough, the hotel does plow through the existing bathroom. Silly my ass.
And… I get screamed at by the Mayor. This time, for not getting permission from the City first.
It’s not on the agenda…
In the past week I’ve received over fifty (50) emails from residents just furious about this new hotel location. So I tell residents to show up to speak at the last three meetings of the year. And then apparently the City just happens to to on social media to remind residents that “the marina won’t be on the agenda until 2023.”
But of course neglecting to mention that anyone can comment on anything the like at any meeting.
So like ten people call me the next day to tell me they don’t want to show up if they won’t be ‘allowed’ to speak.
Defensiveness
It does not bother me at all when people make mistakes. It does not bother me when the votes do not go the way I’d like. But we should never get defensive when residents point out bugs or mistakes.
And for anyone to get annoyed and say “Trust us… you’ll see” on large projects indicates a lack of regard. It would be like displaying the wrong price tag and then getting upset when the customer asked to pay what was clearly listed on the tin.
I get stroppy about it because most residents are so uninformed. They tend to take everything at face value because they do trust that the City runs as expected. It’s actually a compliment.
Priorities
In fact, we actually had a system whereby residents could simply put “Public Comment” in the subject line of an email. Or they could fill out the form and then the staff would cobble together a PDF, deliver it to the Council and then upload to web site. But, like Zoom, it created extra work for the staff.
The bottom line is that all this stuff (web site, public comment, outreach, etc.) takes up City resources. Staff have a certain number of hours/dollars to work with and perhaps they feel they can better serve the public using those resources in other ways, eg. public safety, roads, processing permits, etc.
Priorities
However, shorting things like public comment, Zoom, the web site, public engagement all just happen to lead to less transparent government. And so do all the tiny mistakes that, after a while, stop looking less like mistakes and more like a strategy.
Transparency, but its very nature, is meant to slow the process. And if you happen to like the direction the train is moving, whether consciously or not, you are simply not inclined to do things that might tend to reduce its speed.
Summary
- You do a public meeting with no microphone… followed up by a private meeting with a proper sound system (which you do not want recorded!)
- You put up a poster clearly showing a new hotel crushing into the new $1MM bathroom (and a clearly indicated ‘Relocated Restroom’).
- You dump the electronic Public Comment system with no notice.
- You make hundreds and hundreds of tiny mistakes over time, all of which tend to reduce public engagement.
You do all these things (and many more) and in every single case get defensive, dismissive, patronising and condescending when people notice?
It’s no accident.