Article Contributed on: 9/7/2007 12:39:54 PM
Since I have been on Town Council, I have heard a few people, including one or two of my colleagues, say that they view the role of a member of the Council as being part of a "team."
I have heard some say that they do not think Council members should try to encourage the public to have a say in how the town is governed, that Council members should not try to influence debate on the Council by informing the public of its activities, and that Council members should generally defer to staff recommendations and preferences.
I disagree with all of those claims.
I was elected by the people of my district to represent them. I was not elected to represent the people of any other district in Castle Rock. I was not elected to subsume the priorities of the people in my district to the supposed imperative of unanimity on the Council. And I certainly was not elected to be a rubber stamp for the preferences and desires of the town's unelected, unaccountable and (often) non-resident staff.
I am a voice for the ideas and values that I believe a majority of those who elected me support. I do not believe it is important that all seven Council members agree on everything.
Thus, I am not troubled that others on the Council may disagree with those ideas and values. I welcome a discussion of their ideas and priorities and firmly believe that, if only our Council were open to it, compromise to achieve everyone's priorities could be attained in almost all cases.
If the staff's ideas, or the views of my colleagues on the Council,are inconsistent with the ideas and values I believe are held by most of the people living in Castlewood Ranch and the part of Founders Village I represent, then I will not hesitate to say so and I will not hesitate to use my vote to indicate that stand.
In fact, I think it is generally a good thing if the Council does not too easily go along with the proposals and recommendations of Mark Stevens and his senior management team.
All too often, even in the few months I have been on Council, it appears that those recommendations are insufficiently careful with the taxpayers' money, overly focused on adding ever more layers of bureaucracy and complexity to local government, and oriented too much toward planning and not enough toward doing.
I have also seen a distressing tendency to downplay legal risks and a disappointing pattern of failing to adequately inform members of the Council of the legal considerations inherent in a number of ordinances under consideration. This is especially surprising given the rather large amount of money the town spends to retain outside law firms.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that, since I took office in April, the town's legal department has exhibited a pattern of treating questions about their opinions and conclusions as an unwarranted disruption and an attitude that they should not, indeed cannot, be doubted. Based on my experience in the law, I think it, at a minimum, unwise to treat questions from an elected representative of the public as a mere annoyance to be met with only the most cursory, vague and dismissive answers. I also consider it to be disrespectful of the people of this community, who rely on those they elect to ask the questions they cannot and should not have to submit themselves.
Aside from my concerns about the Council's proper relationship to staff, I am convinced that this community faces a fiscal crisis that is going to get worse as the home construction industry in Colorado continues to experience hard times this year and next. We must wean our town budget off of an addiction to sprawl and a blind faith that there will always be enough new homes built to pay for the latest brainstorm cooked up at Town Hall.
Instead, we have to get serious about convincing those investors who may be looking for a place to build ahigh-technology company, to use just one example of the kind of industry we should be seeking, to put those jobs here. To do that, we have to think again about whether the course we are on is the right one.
There are those who seem to think the path to a prosperous future lies in continuing to encourage sprawl. They seem to be committed to that course no matter the cost in terms of traffic, loss of open space, air pollution, crowded schools, crime, and the loss of time as people have to cope with ever more congestion and distance to get to needed retail and other services. And some of them appear to be willing to ignore the imperative of realistically and profitably diversifying our commercial base.
I strongly disagree with that vision of Castle Rock's future.
I believe we have to convince entrepreneurs that we are different.
I believe we cannot do that unless we prove to them that we care about preserving and protecting the quality of the physical environment in which we live because their employees, executive or grunt, care about that a great deal.
We cannot do that when the Council reflexively dismisses any notion of seeking the community's input on how to smartly protect more open space, build more trails, insure continued clean air and water, safeguard our wildlife and native plants, lower our energy consumption, and extend recycling services to every home and business in town.
I believe we have to convince entrepreneurs that we are smart with the taxpayers' money so that entrepeneurs and their employees and families can be confident that the town will make wise decisions and be able to provide necessary and desired services to a growing population.
We cannot do that when we squander public dollars on payments to"futurists," subsidies to private advocacy groups that feel free to challenge our residents' expressed policy desires in court, an extensive and wholly unnecessary effort to sell the town like a used car, and land give-a-ways to "good ole' boys."
I believe we have to convince the movers and shakers of our future economy that we are constantly cognizant of the absolutely central role families play in this community because those people will want to be certain that the ones they love will be happy here.
That means we have to do everything we possibly can to make this town a safe, prosperous, event-filled, stimulating, and fun place to live so that those families do not have to spend their time and money to drive twenty, thirty or forty miles to purchase what they need and want or entertain themselves.
When our town government makes demonstrably dumb decisions, such as banning all signs in a right-of-way so that no one can advertise a home sale or a garage sale or a lemonade stand, we send the message that we think our future lies in trying to look like an exclusive and, by the way, exclusionary golf resort instead of a family-friendly, economically vital, diverse and tolerant community with amenities and assets that are of interest to many and not few.
That message will not convince the doers and dreamers who we need to build a self-sufficient economy to come here.
Let us never forget that, as Council members, we are politicians. That means we can't be afraid of politics. We have to be willing to say "no" to the policy-wonk notions put forth by the staff that are incompatible with the real needs and priorities of the people in our districts.
We have to be willing to say, again and again if necessary, that the people elected
us to make the policy decisions and did not elect Mark Stevens or his deputy town manager, assistant town manager, ten department directors or ten assistant department directors to do that.
In fact, given the financial constaints we now face, we should be having a discussion about how to eliminate layers of bureaucracy at Town Hall so that we can hire the police officers, firefighters and public works and economic development/development services staff this community needs and build the parks and trails the people who live here want. Unfortunately, it appears that some at Town Hall are willing to live with our current inefficient and top-heavy management structure at the expense of those vital necessities.
When those of us elected to serve on the Town Council disagree on an issue, it should not be surprising. Politicians disagree because their constituents disagree. To do so is neither inappropriate nor harmful.
In disagreement lies the promise of a better future, a more practical idea that hasn't yet been considered, and a commitment to the ideal that each of those privileged to represent people must do so in the way they believe reflects their constituents' desires and aspirations.
I am no idealogue. I am happy to reach common ground.
It is hard to do that, however, when the culture of the Council discourages communication and honest discussion amongst its members.
It is hard to do that when some of the Council's members apparently believe the public should trust only the news releases from the town's unelected staff to tell them what their government is doing. Aside from being impractical, this concept is, to put it mildly, inconsistent with American ideals.
It is hard to do that when the town staff is intent on monopolizing the Council's time with discussion of its priorities, never mind that the voters expect the Council to be spending most of its time on
their priorities.
It is hard to do that when the town's legal department, when it deigns to answer a question at all, does so incompletely and reluctantly.
And it is hard to do that when the Mayor and Mayor Pro-Tem seem dismayed by the notion that members of the Council should use meeting time to discuss the concerns and priorities of their constituents, propose solutions to Castle Rock's problems, and ask necessary questions of Mr. Stevens and his management team.
Nevertheless, I will continue to speak for those who elected me, for as long as I am on the Council, and I will not censor myself because some continue to stick to an outmoded and ultimately unworkable notion that the Town Council is nothing more than a part-time group of yes-men (and women).
When the people I represent, and others in the community, agree with me, it is their right and even their duty to make their voices heard. Democracy cannot work if a government considers it proper to keep its citizens ignorant.
The debates we have on Council should not be kept secret. The discussions we have should not exclude the public. And our disagreements should be made known in the community so that those we represent can choose sides and let their preferences be known.
So I will continue to write this blog and I will continue to point out when the town staff or my colleagues make decisions that I believe are wrong for this community and wrong for my constituents. I will also praise them when they make good decisions.
I will definitely keep sharing my ideas and my goals.
Above all, I will maintain my practice of speaking up for a sustainable, economically prosperous, self-sufficient and financially responsible community that is totally committed to improving the quality of life for the families that are its heart and soul.