Dependence Day....

While the rest of you celebrate Independence Day, we in Lindsay must be content to celebrate only our Dependence, at least for the time being. Short of a large-scale citizen revolt or another lawsuit, our real independence is something we’re going to have to exert at the ballot box in November.


Last week’s city council meeting was a perfect example of the effective downgrade Lindsay’s citizens have received at the hands of their elected representatives. Rescheduled on Monday from its regular Tuesday meeting time to Wednesday, purportedly to have a quorum, few members of the public were able to attend.  At this meeting, two public hearings were held: one on the budget for next year, including the 5-year Capital Improvement Program, the other on a proposed lot line adjustment that will likely result in two sets of tenants needing to find new homes. If public hearings were taken seriously, these would have been rescheduled for a later date to provide proper noticing.


But the really glaring evidence of our lost democracy occurred during Item 10, “Study Session on Proposed Bike Lanes” presented by Bill Zigler, City Planner. I was at the council meeting last fall when Zigler, a confessed bicycle enthusiast, presented the proposed bike lanes during another “study session.” The council actually had questions then about the proposed routes and potential impacts on the neighborhoods from reduced parking. Some also questioned the need, noting the almost complete lack of use of the bike lane on Tulare Road. Zigler assured them he would take their concerns under consideration, and of course no action would be taken without first coming before the council.


Now back before the council, in a presentation any used car salesman would admire, Zigler’s plan got its first increment approved without even taking a vote.  The result will be the elimination of diagonal parking along both sides of the newly-repaved Gale Hill Avenue, replaced by a smaller number of parallel parking slots. It also cements the core of his bike lane plan into place without so much as a questionnaire or a parents meeting.  My attempts to contribute to the discussion went unrecognized.


Two weeks ago I wrote about the reduction of rights to participate in council meetings that city manager Rich Wilkinson has engineered over the last four months. During the public comment period at this week’s council meeting, I laid the responsibility for those reductions squarely on the shoulders of the council. It’s their jurisdiction how open or closed our public meetings will be. This council wants it below the legal limit, so I also laid on their shoulders the responsibility for the huge budget overruns for legal services this year and possibly next, as citizens wrestle their rights back through the legal system.


This city continues to function as if it knows best what’s right for the people, treating us like under-age dependents. It’s called “paternalism” in civil rights language.  But these people are not our parents:  they’re our public servants.  We need to require them to do their job or get out.