No matter where you live, there’s a local government public meeting near you.
Hi, I’m elfling, and I’m a local elected official.
It started out so innocently. My daughter was in kindergarten. I’m interested in schools and education, her education in particular. So when I heard there was a parent meeting, I went. In California, schools have School Site Councils, and at the time their responsibility was to direct the spending of a small amount of money and write a report listing the school’s current scores and priorities. They’re made up of the principal, parents, teachers, and staff.
Budgets and report writing! Policy and priority setting! My favorite. I think they appointed me to a vacant spot on the committee when I showed up for the second meeting. Through this, I got to know the principal/superintendent, several teachers and staff, and a couple of parents, as well as a school board member. And they got to know me, no small thing in a tiny rural community.
A few years later, when a vacancy for the school board occurred, they asked me to file. And so I did. I’ve had the good fortune to serve with several other members of the community, of both political parties, all people who really cared about the school, the students, the staff, and the public trust. Nearly every decision we make is 5-0 (or the equivalent)… and you might think from that that it doesn’t matter who is on the board, that we’re a rubber stamp. But, no.
What I’ve noticed is that even though we operate by consensus, it still really matters who is on the board. The person who cares about science brings up issues relating to science. The person who attends all the games brings up issues about sports. The person with a background in mentoring kids off to college asks pointed questions about the A-G completion rate and financial aid application support. The person with a background in construction thinks about the status of the physical plant. Together, we are smarter. The power to ask questions is a powerful sword, able to redirect (for good or ill) hours and hours of staff time. I try to use it carefully and wisely.
Here’s the other thing. The minutes and the agenda are flat compared to the actual meeting. There’s a lot of commentary and dynamics that you can only get by being in the room. “X was discussed and Y was decided” isn’t going to get the flavor of what people really thought and wanted. In person, you will hear ever quirk and side story, see every rolled eye or earnest interest, and get a real feel for whether your local government is in good hands or not. Are the people in the room engaged? Is it combative? Are the decisionmakers thoughtful?
There’s one more reason to go: the meeting is different if people attend.
I attend not just the school board meetings, but also some other local public meetings. What I notice is, the tenor of the meeting is different when there are strangers in the room. This is true even when I’m the one running the meeting, even though I am committed to transparency and public input. Things will be explained a bit more carefully, the process will be a bit more formal, and you can feel that everyone is just a bit more deliberate in their actions. It can be uncomfortable to walk into a room as a stranger — I certainly have felt it! — but I’ve walked out generally feeling welcomed and also a bit smarter about what is going on. (I also finally met two of my neighbors this way.)
And, you’ll know if you’re well represented or if you need to find some fresh candidates.
Your local officials will know that their constituents care about the work that is being done, and that they are watched. The interests of the people who come to the meetings may be overruled, but they will not be forgotten, when decisions are made.
So! Your assignment: go to a public meeting.
Some ideas:
- Schools (School board, PTA/PTSO, School Site Council, etc)
- Water (Municipal, ag, special districts)
- Zoning
- Board of Elections — ask DocDawg about the importance of this!
- Democratic Party
- This weekend’s Democratic Delegate elections!
- City Council/County Supervisor
- Parks & Recreation
- Friends of the Library
- Public hearing on a specific local issue… some examples!
- I went to one about local broadband last year
- Seismicity Monitoring at The Geysers geothermal plant public meetings
- Wake County, NC Board of Elections
- I learned more about government at one State Assembly Education Committee hearing in Sacramento than in all my years of schooling. (And by the end, I was thinking, man, they had to raise HOW MUCH MONEY to have to sit in that room with all these people and hear their … ahem… requests… every week?!?!)
There is a meeting, on one topic or another, that is relatively nearby, with convenient parking or transit, at a time you can attend, some time during the next year. Commit to going to one.
The boards I frequent are good guys, but in other places, people count on the meetings being overlooked and unattended. Show up! Be gracious and polite, of course, but just bear witness. If you’re afraid it will be boring, bring a laptop or phone or tablet. You can blog it — or you can play Candy Crush — they won’t know the difference. They’ll just know you’re there. In the room where it happens.
Make this one of your 2017 actions. Attend a local meeting.
