I’m going to blame it on the orange blossoms. I got fooled into thinking the Lindsay city manager, Rich Wilkinson, had a change of heart or at least saw the handwriting on the wall about his role in stripping the public of their rights to participate in our city council meetings. Two weeks ago, when I wrote optimistically about the restoration of those rights, I must have been high on blossom-perfumed air.
For three years I have been recommending that the language he removed regarding public participation be restored to the agenda packet cover sheet. There was one place on the agenda itself where three words needed to be reinstated, but the major sentences he obliterated were found on the cover sheet, which says across the top “Welcome to your Lindsay City Council Meeting,” followed by this statement:
"Whether you are attending this meeting because of general interest or because an item of special interest to you is to be reviewed, your presence is an important means of helping ensure and informed public and responsible Municipal Government."
The
cover sheet goes on to describe the city council and its role, the city
manager’s job, the timing of council meetings and types of actions that occur,
the processes for making suggestions, inquiries and complaints to city staff as
well as the rules for citizen participation in meetings. Except for the website, it is the only place
where the city communicates to the residents their rightful place and
responsibilities in maintaining the community.
When
I was called down to Rich’s office, as if I were the offending party, I had
noticed that the purpose of the meeting was called “the agenda.” I assumed, wrongly, that this was just
shorthand for the project of restoring our rights. But after his vacation, when he finally
communicated some of the language he proposed in response to my complaint, it
became clear that not only was he not restoring language to the cover sheet, he
was doing away with the cover sheet altogether.
Naturally,
I asked why. “No other cities have a
cover sheet,” replied the faithful Maria Knutson, assistant to the city
manager. I called the mayor, who did not
find much merit in that reason, either.
I am still waiting for a resolution to this question.
Are
you tired enough of all this? It seems
so small on the surface, like a gnat on the windshield. But this unaccountability, this refusal to
bear responsibility to the people who pay his enormous salary, who rely on him
to maintain a law-abiding staff as well as the entire department of public
safety, is the tip of a big and dangerous iceberg.
Friday
the Lindsay police arrested a young man, 24, in some kind of fracas, location
not identified. In the squad car, on the
way to his booking, he died. The
sheriff’s department will conduct an investigation, but who are they going to
ask? That young man cannot speak for
himself. He cannot say he should have
had an ambulance instead of a squad car; his family cannot know where or when a
mistake was made. And at this moment at
least, the only opportunity anyone has to voice their concerns to our elected
officials in public is three minutes during the public comment period, during
which no one, council or staff, has to answer your questions.
Don’t
be fooled. Help your city council
members establish the need for accountability from our city manager/chief of
public safety. We will not have real
public safety until we do.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Trudy Wischemann is a wordworking realist who writes. You can send her your stories of public endangerment c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.
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