participatory governance
Tonight I attended the town hall meeting regarding revisions to the Kern County animal control ordinance. I enjoy participating in local forum like this. They are usually educational and often entertaining. Tonight's discussion involved modifications to the number of animals that would be allowed without permit in county areas. At least 70 people packed the Inyokern Senior Center at 6pm. The meeting was to solicit public comment and concern about the changes. I found a couple of things interesting, particularly how many people really had no idea how the whole process worked.
Although there were several very vocal and well-spoken people who voiced serious concerns backed up with rational reasons, many more were reactionary, defensive, and at times, clueless. Someone referred to the proceedings as "communist", a comment I almost giggled at given that an open discussion like this would probably not be possible in a communist society (aside from the fact that communism is an economic model anyhow). Another ranted on about the violation of her constitutional rights against taxation without representation. When told that the Board of Supervisors was the deciding body, she seemed clueless that they were elected officials, elected by the people, and if we didn't like what they decided, we could vote them out of office. I found it ironic that she was cloaking herself in constitutional law yet apparently didn't understand how her local representative government worked.
A lot of people were unable to stay focused and on topic, dragging the meeting out to 3 hours by the time I finally had to leave. We probably could have covered the entire ordinance in an hour otherwise. I think the bottom line was that there were a lot of people who needed to practice the fine art of listening before reacting and responding. It made me appreciate all the more the people who took the time to educate themselves and offer well thought out comments, questions, and suggestions.
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