A dictatorship might be more streamlined and efficient, but we are protecting freedoms and you can’t have both. You have to sacrifice a little bit of efficiency to get democracy. If nobody asks questions how do you know you’re getting all the information and know that it isn’t skewed? In my involvement with the PTA (as President of Washington Terrace Elementary PTA) we have a lot of people who want to “go along to get along” and anything more is politics. We are there for a reason. If you go along to get along, what are we accomplishing? This is what I’ve seen in schools but it applies to the city as well. Somebody can control what’s going on by controlling the information.
In the volunteer positions that I now participate in, I understand that although the topics are different, the format is the same. As a councilwoman, I will work hard to ask questions, talk to constituents, gather information and make informed decisions. My decisions would be based on what is best for the community, not the administration. The city council has responsibility to the people that they serve. The citizens of Riverdale should expect to be informed and engaged.
I question some things that have been added to the budget like a brand new ambulance and new motorcycles for the police that only get used for four months. I also question the move that Mr. Hansen (city administrator) got his contract renewed a year and a half early. I wonder why are we doing this?
For more information on the city administrator's contract see:
ReplyDeletehttp://m.standard.net/topics/city-government/2011/06/30/riverdale-extends-contract-city-administrator
You can actually read the city administrator's contract a the following link.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.riverdalecity.com/meetings_events/meetings/council/Agendas/2011/060711CC/060711CC/ItemF2.pdf
As a councilmember you end up relying significantly on the information that is presented to you by the administration. When I was on the council I fought to get more information. I asked that all items on the agenda come with an executive summary. If you look at the current agendas you will see that they kinda do. Unfortunately those are woefully incomplete. My vision was at least 2-3 paragraphs that would outline the issue and present pros and cons and a summary of what action the administration wanted and why. That is not what is given. If a council want any information that might support a decision that is contrary to what administration wants they are going to have to find and develop that on their own.
And I didn't want the information against just so that I could use it to justify a vote against. I wanted to see what information might lead to embarrassing questions like what happened with the ambulance policy. I often tried to play devils advocate to get to the information that would allow me to feel good making a decision that I knew was right because I knew and understood both sides of the issue. Unfortunately all we seemed to ever get was as little information as possible that would convince us that what the administration wanted us to do was the correct thing.