The City is making good on a proposal I made at our June 20th City Council Meeting to publish the video of Committee Meetings. The first batch are now available on the Des Moines Councilmember Youtube Channel. Go get ’em! Thanks to Councilmember Martinelli and Deputy Mayor Mahoney for supporting the idea. And of course,
... continue reading.Transparency
It’s all a matter of timing…
1 Comment on It’s all a matter of timing…The Truman Show
1 Comment on The Truman ShowI occasionally hear from critics that I make too many things ‘public’. Why aren’t I trying to communicate with the administration or colleagues? The fact is that I do that. Whether I want to or not. 😀 My life as an elected in a very public and very hostile work environment sometimes remind me of
... continue reading.GRO Outreach TLDR
2 Comments on GRO Outreach TLDRThis is sort of a TLDR for the .01% of people who drill down. If you write what I do, angry people will always say you over-simplified or didn’t provide enough detail and so on. Which is often true. You cannot help but do those things in any short form article. So this is some
... continue reading.This is a news year…
1 Comment on This is a news year…
2003 Furniture Store Guy
Another old guy reference: There’s this moment in the movie Amadeus, where the Emperor walks in on a rehearsal of Mozart’s newest music and he sees something so obviously wrong he’s rendered speechless with confusion. My ‘fix the web site’ proposal At last week’s City Council Meeting, I felt a lot like this guy (not
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Mayor as Majority Leader
The following is a heavily edited version of a very wonky thing I wrote on one of those Des Moines Facebook Pages. In that post, a resident creates a poll of “who should be mayor!” and then discusses the job in terms of “Rule 5”. I’m redoing it here because although it’s super-wonky and boring
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Please RTFM
Leave a comment on Please RTFMBelieve it or not, I now get anywhere from dozens to hundreds of requests every week, often for exactly the same thing. So, if your question is in reference to a particular article, please try reading said article thoroughly, or use the Search to find what you need, before you contact me. If you can
... continue reading.Two quick examples of the transparency problem
Leave a comment on Two quick examples of the transparency problemAt our last City Council Meeting there was a contentious discussion about providing public comment. But the problem of transparency and public engagement is actually far more profound and I am concerned that the discussion made it seem more trivial than it is. There is no obvious way for a member of the public to
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Public Comment At Committee Meetings
1 Comment on Public Comment At Committee MeetingsI think there is a misunderstanding about the whole ‘public comment’ vote near the end of last week’s Cit Council Meeting. There seems to be a perception that the issue is just one more personality conflict over some minor ‘procedural’ deal. It was not. This is a difference in philosophy so basic that we cannot
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