Comments make a statement
As you read this, unless you're doing so after Sunday, I'm holding onto the reins of the bucking bronco of journalism that a daily newspaper tends to become. The editor and city editor are taking a breather; I'm the other wordwrangler.
I toyed with the idea of an April Fool's column on April 5 — how's that for a prank? — and came up with a few outlandish items to include. Discretion being valorous, I figured I'll wait till my boss gets back before trying to push boundaries.
Besides, during Tuesday's Chico City Council meeting, Addison Winslow provided a more timely bit of column fodder.
I wonder how many people checked the date when
City Clerk Debbie Presson announced Winslow as the last speaker in the public comment period previously known as Business from the Floor. It was April 2, not April 1, when Winslow left his seat and addressed his councilmates from the lectern.
“Council,” he began, “I'm here today because you elected not to have reports from the dais. Mayor, what's up?”
The nod to Andrew
Coolidge acknowledged the mayor's push, rebuffed by others, to allow each councilor to make a monthly report on issues related to their district or relay deliberations from committees on which they serve.
Winslow spoke about the pursuit of passenger rail service and “energy independence” — i.e., community choice aggregation for electricity — for Chico before revisiting the point in his preface.
“This year, for the first year, we've become the best-paid city council that the city of Chico has ever had,” he noted, referencing a state-initiated bump in stipends from $600 to $1,900 a month. “So how is it that now is not the right time to be receiving reports from city council?
“I feel if you're not active in your community and transparent, if you never have any reports to give, then you should not be making land-use decisions” — a gentle jab at Tom van Overbeek, who previously responded to the pay raise by declaring that any councilor who relies on their stipend shouldn't be in decision-making position on land use.
Several colleagues and citizens chuckled.
Winslow continued by observing this council's policies preclude commissioners from setting their panels' agendas and require a councilor to seek a vote to initiate a discussion at a future meeting without the benefit of written material for background.
“This council has become adept at cutting off members of the public who speak to items we deem to be diminished in importance. … I would challenge you to think of one thing this council has done more effectively than constrain the places for public discussion.”
Once he concluded his remarks, Winslow returned to his chair, and the meeting continued as usual.
Disclaimer: I advocated for councilor comments in a February column titled “Say that (stuff) with your chest.” The council — specifically, all but Coolidge and Winslow — rejected the proposal in March. I understand the sentiment that reports could turn into stump speeches, but given how much has changed in Chico since a council tried and abandoned this a decade ago, the past may not be prologue.
The broader point is the city's approach to communication. I say city instead of council because the attitude extends to, if not from, city hall.
Council agendas have City Manager's Report as a standing item, but Mark Sorensen doesn't give them. He explained to me that he updates councilors regularly, and given that he's “tracking more than 100 (matters), that would be quite a time sink.”
This may be the crux, though: “Governing Board meetings are to conduct the business of the agency, not a news broadcast.”
I appreciate the deference to my job. On the occasions when Action News Now doesn't cover a meeting, I serve as the conduit of coverage to Chicoans who don't tune in or show up. I spend a lot of my wages locally; that's one way to boost employment and Measure H revenues!
Nonetheless … I think the public misses out. Sorensen, a former councilor who served as mayor, sends out more press releases and announcements than his immediate predecessor. Yet, questions abound. Tuesday's meeting alone had citizens inquiring via public comments about the Warren v. Chico settlement agreement, campgrounds, a sister city program and empty storefronts downtown. (Following the latter, which included a suggestion for sprucing up the vacant spaces, Councilor Sean Morgan voiced a rhetorical question: “How are we not doing it if it's that simple?”)
I doubt other councilors will follow Winslow's lead and join fellow Chicoans on the public comment line. Not all have as much to say as the lone liberal amid conservatives. Still, there's middle ground to stake between pontification and reticence.