That’s a pretty boring title for a pretty boring subject, unless you think that your voice should be heard in local government . . . then it is one of the most important, most fundamental issues in our democracy from uber-left to uber-right. The recent flap over the School Board attempting to limit public participation has brought this topic out of quiet little subcommittees and spurred some healthy public discussion. Which is exciting for geeks like me who have been working on these issues for years with a little progress here and a little progress there.
While I’m sympathetic to the school board members who are looking for way to make their meetings more manageable, I also think that, well, there’s gotta be a better way to do it. I very much appreciate the student representative, Carol Carstensen and Johnny Winston Jr. who didn’t let proposal proceed to a vote the other night.
Putting general public input at the end of the agenda at an unspecified time is essentially saying that they don’t want to hear from you in this venue. Cuz only the most tenacious among us would wait until the end of the meeting to speak. It also makes is to that if kids and their parents come to the meeting, the kids can speak but the parents can’t unless they take their kids home and come back or keep their kids with them at the meeting. Awkward.
I’ve been part of the Progressive Dane folks who have been publicly critical, but I’ve also offered some suggestions. I think what I’m most frustrated by at this point is that I still don’t have a copy of the proposal (I have to email staff and ask for it) and it seems that school board members feel like we gave the public wrong information about if there was going to be public input on this proposal.
Luckily, I think both problems can be or are solved. School Board President Arlene Silveira has already talked to staff to figure out how to link the attachments for their agenda. If they can get it worked out technically, this will be GREAT! Then I (and others) won’t have to but them or the staff to see what the proposal is that is on the agenda.
Also, we’ve been informed that even though the meeting on the 18th is a workshop, they are going to allow public testimony on this issue, and this issue only. Thanks to Arlene for making that happen as well.
I guess, in some ways, those two issues show that the school board members are listening. Too bad it had to all happen this way. Hopefully, in the future, we can find ways to have these discussions in a more transparent way that doesn’t look so bad and helps to build trust with the public, instead of leaving people questioning their motives.
Now, hopefully they can resolve the underlying issue on the 18th to find a way to make their meeting time productive, but not limit public participation. I have faith they can do that if they continue to listen. Thanks to all the school board members and all the work they do! It’s a tough job.
