You may have read the story, here’s the letter:
DATE: November 3, 2008
TO: Members of the Board of Estimates
FROM: Ald. Satya Rhodes-Conway, District 12
SUBJECT: October 27, 2008, Board of Estimates MeetingColleagues:
I’m writing to express my disappointment and concern regarding our collective behavior at the October 27, 2008, Board of Estimates (BOE) meeting. I feel we were in violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the Open Meetings Law. More importantly, I feel we were profoundly, insultingly disrespectful of the many citizens who spent hours waiting to testify in front of us.
Decisions about the public’s money should be made in public. It was embarrassing to witness, over five hours, the endless side-conversations and negotiations taking place at last Monday’s meeting, particularly when the topic of discussion was an item on the agenda. Perhaps it’s too easy to get wrapped up in what’s going on, and to forget how few alders it takes to create a quorum or negative quorum of BOE. Personally, I find it hard to keep track of walking quorums. But in all cases, the easiest thing to do is to simply discuss the matter at the table, in the official meeting. Why risk violating the Open Meetings Law, alienating your colleagues and insulting the public? I am not speaking theoretically. Since the October 27 meeting, multiple individuals, both City staff and private citizens, have spoken to me and expressed their dismay at how clear it was that there was something going on outside the meeting and how little attention BOE members paid to the public testimony.
Elected officials, first and foremost, serve the public. It’s hard for those of us who regularly speak in public to remember, but the first time you speak in front of a City committee or the Common Council, most people are quite nervous. I remember the first time I spoke in front of the Council. I was shaking, but it was reassuring to see 20 faces looking back at me and paying attention to what I was saying. We owe our citizens that attention, whether on the Council floor or at a committee meeting. We owe it to them to be sitting at the table and giving them our attention, not looking at our laptops. The October 27 BOE meeting was a particularly flagrant example of our collective failure to pay attention, but I’ve noticed it on the Council floor as well. I do not exempt myself from this criticism; I know that I do not always give speakers my complete attention. Meetings are long, and we don’t always have a stake in the issue being discussed. But it is our responsibility to pay attention to the citizens who speak at our meetings.
I appeal to you, to whatever instinct for public service prompted you to run for office in the first place. Please help me return respect for and appreciation of citizen participation to the forefront of our practice. Please commit with me to give your full attention to the citizens who, after all, only get three to five minutes each to speak to us. We will all be better for it, and so will the City.
cc: Mayor Dave Cieslewicz
Members of the Common Council
Michael May, City Attorney
Dean Brasser, Comptroller
Hard to argue with that. I would like to add a few things – first, do not assume that just because someone is looking at the computer, it doesn’t mean they are not paying attention. I’m certain I was looking at and typing at my computer for the majority of the meeting – but clearly I was paying enough attention to write a detailed blog post. That is because it is how I take notes. Additionally, the agendas and information for the meeting are all on the computer. As well as resources like past budgets and information on past actions. For me, typing at my computer is the same as taking notes on paper and referring to papers that might be on a desk in front of me.
Second, the meeting law violations bother me even more than the rudeness. Those who were there could see who was being rude . . . they could not see who was deciding what with whom and certainly did not have a way of knowing what that were saying or agreeing to. I see that as a much, much bigger problem that is being treated with a somewhat cavalier attitude.
