Our dues? Paying attention . . . Yes, by simply schooling yourself on how our local governance is organized, who are the players, what are the screw-ups, where is the money and what things get reported you can legitimately call yourself a citizen, an advocate for democracy.Being vigilant is being an activist, not the crazed lunatic portrayed by those in power. If larger numbers of people are informed and paying attention, we make changes. Simple math. There are only a tiny minority trying to garner power, land and influence over the many thousands simply wanting to live a quality life.
Each Tuesday is Dues-day and a post on some basic aspect of local government will feature some facts, a video clip (called Citizen Tip), some links or images to build up our sense of the process and how this has historically played out at city hall. This week the mayor rotation is one of several important agenda items for the Wednesday city council meeting at 6 pm.
This clip shows how year after year the council majority have kept Teresa Barth from assuming the role of mayor. If letting a majority keep someone from serving as mayor is the current policy, it may be legal. It isn't ethical or representative. As James Bond says, "that's okay, but it's not good policy."
This post isn't offering the solution, just engaging the conversation and providing the background. These last three years show mean spirited displays of political power and failures to match words to deeds.
Our Mayor Stocks blog has written almost a half dozen posts on mayor selection seen here. We must demand much more and demonstrably a whole new batch of council members.
Democracy isn't free. We're all paying the price of turning a blind eye to the goings on around us in our government. So much has been trashed, so much done in our names that neither benefit us or our communities or the resources all around. Locally this has cost us representation of growing majority of voters as the city council is made up of a super majority serving primarily commercial, developer, wealthy investors over the majority of residents or the common good. Even if these four council people believe they are doing the work of the people, they have consistently marginalized and silenced Teresa Barth as well as dissent, minority views and transparent government practices in general. And that is not democracy, even if they wrote a code or ordinance saying it is.
