On taking the city to the citizens

Published 3:00 pm Saturday, February 2, 2008

It was, to be sure, a colorful phrase with which to open a public meeting:

“Welcome to God’s Country!”

The year was 1992, and with characteristic flare, City Councilman Ben Dysart welcomed the mayor, his council colleagues and assembled citizens to the north end of the island, where Dysart of course resided and whose ward he represented.

The occasion was one of several council meetings held at locations around the island. The south end get-together took place at Blakely Elementary School, and on this evening, congregants met at the Wilkes School gymnasium on North Madison.

While the council at that time met regularly at the fire hall in Winslow, the point of the road show was to take the city to the citizens – a gesture of outreach to hear neighborhood concerns, and bring out folks who didn’t usually show up at meetings or who wanted to meet the players in the new all-island government. The events were well attended, and offered plenty of time for informal discussion apart from the regular business.

It was a good model, and one that we’ve wondered why the City Council never codified. Some citizens seem to agree, given the apparent enthusiasm for a town meeting to be held at American Legion Hall on Bucklin Hill this coming Tuesday.

While it’s been organized by the citizens rather than the city – it’s unclear which local officials will attend, or what their participation will be – the evening offers a chance for informal, large-group discussion too often elusive.

“Communication” is a buzzword that’s been thrown around City Hall a lot over the years with varying degrees of success. Bland newsletters and all-island mailers have come and gone; the city website is informative but offers only one-way conversation.

Too, it’s hard to know where our figurative “public square” even exists these days. Not everyone reads (or likes) the local newspapers as they once did; blogs claim to promote a new public discourse, but often are one-sided vehicles for anonymous inference, anonymous innuendo and anonymous invective. (By way of metaphor, think of a town meeting where everyone wears a paper bag over their head.)

That’s why Tuesday’s old fashioned town meeting makes sense – put everybody in one room with no agenda, and see where the discussion goes.

The thing is, the City Council can ensure that it happens not just this once, but regularly. Council meetings are set not by policy (which may or may not be carried out by the administration) or by resolution (which everyone will forget about a month later), but through the municipal code. Why not change the ordinance so that one council meeting the first half of every year is held in the north end, and one meeting the second half in the south? Or more often still? Take the show on the road with no agenda but a two-way conversation with citizens about their issues.

The council had the right idea in 1992 but didn’t follow through. Why not do it now, finally; the late Ben Dysart, a man of the people if ever one served on the council, would certainly have approved.

On at least one point, old Ben was wrong – everyone knows God’s Country is the south end. But reasonable islanders can differ, as a good town meeting will show.

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Correction

• A Wednesday story about a proposed spray park incorrectly reported several details of the park design. The estimated $117,000 would pay for spray features outside the Don Nakata Aquatic Center. Approximately 10 spray features would be included, some above ground, some embedded in in the concrete pad.