Recap Of Gajewski Townhall
Jul 17, 2009 14:06 - 15 Comments
Last night I was able to attend council member >Piotr Gajewski’s quarterly townhall meeting. Every few months he holds an informal meeting where anyone is welcome to come and bring up whatever issues are on their mind.
Council Member Piotr Gajewski
Sometimes at these meetings, there’s an issue percolating in the community and the give-and-take can be robust (for example, at Piotr’s first such meeting, the court house issue was in full force and there was a very spirited debate).
Last night, though, we seemed to be “between” issues. The Beall’s Grant II and Princeton Place fence issues appear to be heading for closure, so while they were discussed there was not a great deal of animation around them. And, the Victory Court housing issue has not yet progressed enough for there to be droves of people being vocal on either side yet, so that was simply noted and then the conversation moved on.
In fact, the most conversation at last night’s meeting took place on a subject that I have long found quite interesting (and is part of my “day job”): civic participation and civic engagement.
A number of people brought up, at various points, their sense that “the way we get work done” in Rockville has changed and become much more confrontational of late. Processes get derailed, rhetoric is heated both from elected officials as well as from community leaders. While he did not raise the issue, he did respond to the general point: “We have procedures in place, and then we ignore the procedures and give the keys to the city sometimes to self-appointed groups of individuals. That concerns me a lot.”
We also talked, though, in a more positive vein about what the city might do to be more proactive about drawing people into public life in the first place. (Full disclosure: I brought this up.)
The city relies on an essentially receiver approach to dealing with citizens — it puts information out there, and those who are interested come and comment, attend meetings, etc. This is important and useful, but it’s also got some downsides. It draws out the minority of people who have strong emotions on certain issues, and can squeeze out the voices of the majority who don’t feel strongly, or have ambivalent views. It also relegates citizens to the role of “providing input” when a much more robust relationship is possible.
This led to a very interesting conversation about governmental priorities and structure, as well as the roles of citizens. As a whole, the Mayor and Council have certainly recognized the overall issue, and “community engagement” is one of the Vision Priorities they have agreed upon. But Piotr said that it is a particular interest of he and of council member Phyllis Marcuccio.
There are a number of different techniques that could be used to increase a sense of community engagement, but Piotr pointed out that the city “are not experts” in that — that more study is needed and perhaps advice. At this point the conversation also veered into looking at different structures for governing Rockville, including increasing the number of council members, having some or all run in districts instead of at-large, and strengthening the office of Mayor which at present holds few powers beyond those that any council member holds.
Roald Schrack, a longtime Rockville political analyst and a member of the Charter Review Commission, pointed out that some of these ideas had been examined by the commission and they’d advised against them for various reasons.
Piotr, for his part, sees the overall issue as symptomatic of the growth of the city. “What worked for a town of 40,000 might not work for a city of 80,000, which is where we are heading very soon,” he said.
All in all, for a civic geek like me, a fascinating evening.
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I was going to make it!! But I’ve got the stupid flu
I’m so glad that I attended, and the ideas were really flying around the room and bouncing off the walls.I was thinking today in particular about the issue of “engaging people” or “bring them in” to politics, and in one sense it does come down to concepts like recruiting, marketing, advertising. We’re so inundated and overwhelmed with distractions and information overload that it’s understandable that a lot of people don’t want to consider complicated political issues, and would just rather reduce them to black/white and then react accordingly: either indifference and acceptance, or else possibly hyper-motivated.So, then, it comes back to how to motivate those who aren’t already motivated?In the course of doing genealogy/Civil War research, I learned that some of my Tennessee ancestors would actually kidnap family members on Election Day to take them to the polls and force them to vote a certain way, or there would frequently be gunfights at the polls. So, I will acknowledge that there has been a certain level of progress.
Brad, having attended one of Piotr Gajewski’s meetings and knowing how well you report on community meetings, I am sure you covered the important points.Here are comments I want to share.1. Piotr Gajewski’s comment about “procedures being ignored” is an issue I knew was occurring long before I ran for Rockville Mayor in 2005. Not much has changed.2. One technique that can be used to increase sense of community engagement is to have public officials uphold proper behavior and lead by good example. There is no need for a study as Piotr states. We need to see more trust with our City Council Members.3. The size of Rockville is not a factor in running a good City. Do we think one or more members on the Rockville City Council would result in more civility among the group?4. Good leadership and cooperation with all stakeholders are needed. I do not believe the mayor position needs more power, but needs to lead the Council. The mayor should have the ability to motivate people to achieve a common goal, to communicate with people of different views, and provide a trusting work environment that results in a consensus.
Brad, besides the CM, yourself and Roald Schrack how many were in attendance?
I did not count exactly but around ten I believe.
Brad, are you saying that, including the CM, Roald and yourself, there were around ten? The reason I asked is that I had heard from two people who attended, who siad that including the CM, there were only eight people total.
I meant total. I did not count. The turnout seemed light, but about in line with where I have seen in the past for many civic meetings.
Brad, Don’t worry, since my last post, I confirmed that 7 and gajewski were in attendance. Yes, you’re right, that does seem like a light turnout. Thanks anyway.
The point of my Townhall Meetings, which I hold roughly quarterly, is to engage interested citizens in a more meaningful exchange than is possible during Citizens’ Forums at Mayor and Council meetings. I allow two hours, and it has been my experience that, whether as few as four or as many as twenty have shown up, this has been enough time to cover, in some depth, the issues of the day. The meetings also make it possible for citizens to quiz me on my positions on issues. While I try to state my positions as clearly as I can from the dais, certainly more clarification is possible when people get to ask questions. Getting the word out about these meetings is difficult, especially since my Council Colleagues insisted on a rule that meetings sponsored by individual Coumcilmembers may not be promoted in a City sponsored medium within nine months of an upcoming election. I disagree with this rule, as it seems to imply that the work of elected City officials comes to a grinding halt a little more than half way through the term, and efforts to interact with citizens must then be filtered through a prism of a future election. The reality is that the work of the government does go on, and in my mind, we should be making it as easy as possible for citizens to access their elected officials. No matter. The rule is what it is, and I look forward to hosting another (perhaps my last!) meeting in October and will do my best to again get the word out without City resources. Note: if you would like to receive personal notification of my October Townhall Meeting, please send contact information to PGajewski@rockvillemd.gov.
I am posting this comment here because for some reason it won’t post where 8 other comments were made on the compensation controversy.After listening to the July 13, 2009 Rockville City Council meeting, I want to share my opinion. It is important to know how City Council decisions are made and how they impact our City tax dollars. My interest is in the process and the fairness.I have a different philosophy how our tax dollars should be managed. In my opinion over the years, NOT much of the process has changed with the City management, except larger budgets. We still have a weak mayor and council and a strong city manager form of government. Why would anyone be surprised with what is happening in Rockville? Would we get BETTER representation with a seven-member council instead of five?Not enough people know the complexity and consequences of BUDGETS. They would be surprised to know how much money can be redirected with a simple authority. Revenues are planned for the required City services and new capital projects. The City staff recommends an annual budget using future expense and revenue projections. Funds are allocated with the priorities approved by the Mayor and Council. If the City Council is weak and lacks good budget understanding, our tax dollars will be allocated with few questions asked.The Rockville City Council meeting was a bit heated when the “compensation increase for Rockville staff” opinion article was discussed. Politics came to play in the discussion.Council Member Phyllis Marcuccio stated she is troubled with one council member’s written opinion which was forwarded among staff with a trail of importance. It wasn’t the content she had trouble with, but staff going beyond the neutrality that staff should keep.In essence Council Member Marcuccio concluded that the City manager and staff should “not be politically influenced,” should “remain NEUTRAL,” and not use City resources in forwarding that type of correspondence. She stated that her sense of governance is for staff“to be neutral and NOT political.” She stressed that “staff must remain neutral.” We all have our opinions. In this case I agree with Council Member. Marcuccio. Let us watch to see what other controversy arises before the City Election in November
I don’t know what the point is of stressing how many people were there. I went to the last one, after a BGII meeting, and the room was full–at least a dozen people. If you’re really “concerned” you go. I thank Piotr for holding these.
mr jagewski, don’t worry about the low turnout, whether it’s 4 or 7 residents, I’m sure they gained some insights by quizzing you.
The discussion of how citizens are allowed/invited to be involved reminded me of this interesting scale ( http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/327592931_fd7b4be280_o.gif )that has been linked to from urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com in the past.
Tim that’s a really cool graphic. I am going to see if I can make it embed here:>
(Let’s see if that worked.)
Don’t you think this needs a bit of context, or at least a link to an article or abstract that uses it in its content…