My Opinion: Valid Criticisms Of Sincere Efforts

Criticisms have crossed my desk of late, directed towards members of the City Council. Since much of it relates to items that have appeared here at >Rockville Central, in the interest of transparency I wanted to make clear my thoughts. I am trying to be helpful here and advance an emerging dialog — you may not agree with my view and that’s OK. I welcome critique.

Anyway: One council member has recently announced a “town hall” meeting. Another has written a lengthy analysis of the district court house issue, and has suggested that ongoing meetings on the subject might be a good idea. Meanwhile, two officially-scheduled Council meetings have been canceled and, under pressure from the public, a previously-taken decision to cease televising work sessions was reversed.

All of this has generated a number of legitimate criticisms, which are well-crystallized in this contributor opinion piece by Joseph Jordan — though, based on my Inbox, Joe is not at all alone in his views.

For what it’s worth (which is probably just about what you are paying for it), here’s what I think are some important facts about where we are right now in terms of our City’s political climate:

• There are some contentious, substantive issues that the City is facing (such as the court house, the new budget, rezoning, and others), many of which have people understandably on edge;
• There is an existing recent history of the City Council having difficulty working together which has resulted in skepticism on the part of many that disagreements can be worked through; and
• While they are hopeful that productive norms can be maintained, a number of citizens voice a lack of trust how some of the City Council’s decisions are made.

The ingredients are all there for some difficult slogging and cross words in the near future.

I’m in favor of members of the city council making their own statements and holding their own meetings on important issues, so we can get to know them better. However, such things need to take into account these facts, and it’s important that they be calibrated — so they lessen mistrust as opposed to fan it. In other words: Joe makes good points when he criticizes both of these recent moves, but I also feel that council members John Britton and Piotr Gajewski are making sincere efforts to add to (not diminish) the public discourse and their intent ought to be encouraged, even if there are aspects of how it got done that we don’t agree with.

Indeed, cross words are sometimes just part and parcel of getting public work accomplished. But, with the above in mind I hope that all (citizens and community leaders and political leaders) can move forward remembering that:

• City officials have a number of hard decisions to make and actions to take — so they need “room” to do that; and
• Some citizens have felt shut out of decision making — so they need clear signals that their concerns are taken seriously; and
• Everyone involved, without question, has the best interests of the City at heart — so it’s likely they aren’t just trying to make one another mad.
  

Maybe this just adds up to “can’t we all just get along?” I do know it is not always that easy. But I think there is room, on President’s Day weekend, for there to be a pause and the heat to lower a bit, while we reflect on how best to move forward.

What do you think?

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