Do you participate in your local government?

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  • Monkey Butler
    Senior Member
    • Feb 2009
    • 292

    Do you participate in your local government?



    I get much more satisfaction from our town Government than this person does from his.

    My Water district on the other hand...
    Last edited by Monkey Butler; 03-24-2019, 08:56 PM.
  • Art Haberland
    Fluent in Typo
    • May 2015
    • 10190

    #2
    Re: Do you participate in your local government?

    what a way to prove your point.
    "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito"

    -Dalai Lama

    Comment

    • CK 17
      Senior Member
      • Jul 2002
      • 9374

      #3
      Re: Do you participate in your local government?

      My wife’s running for school board. Her only confrontation so far was from a prolife nutter opposed to the school health class. Utterly insane. While we were all looking out for the zombie apocalypse, we got run over by the stupid apocalypse.

      __________________________________________________ ________________________

      Comment

      • Monkey Butler
        Senior Member
        • Feb 2009
        • 292

        #4
        Re: Do you participate in your local government?

        Originally posted by CK 17
        My wife’s running for school board. Her only confrontation so far was from a prolife nutter opposed to the school health class. Utterly insane. While we were all looking out for the zombie apocalypse, we got run over by the stupid apocalypse.
        So here's a hypothetical question. If she is elected and the nutter attends a board meeting, does she take his opinion into consideration, listen or engage in any way or does he get the cold shoulder as in the OP?

        Comment

        • skuthorp
          Senior Member
          • Jan 2002
          • 73593

          #5
          Re: Do you participate in your local government?

          Not any longer, but I have in the past.
          Our two local councils are beset by a combination of conflicts of interest, financial fiddling, nepotism, a little minor bribery and plain incompetence. Par for the course probably but in spite of that they manage to get stuff done.
          On a more serious note two council inspactors were murdered last year attempting to do their job. A quasi-religious nutter.

          Comment

          • Paul Pless
            pinko commie tree hugger
            • Oct 2003
            • 124783

            #6
            Re: Do you participate in your local government?

            Originally posted by CK 17
            While we were all looking out for the zombie apocalypse, we got run over by the stupid apocalypse.
            idiocracy is a documentary
            Simpler is better, except when complicated looks really cool.

            Comment

            • Nicholas Scheuer
              Senior Member
              • Aug 2006
              • 13579

              #7
              Re: Do you participate in your local government?

              Once ran for the office of City Councilman in a municipality of 35,000 folks. Spoke before that body once and was given all the time I desired. The speaker in the OP might have opened his presentation in such a way as to command the rapt attention of all present.

              Comment

              • Garret
                Hills of Vermont
                • Apr 2005
                • 48606

                #8
                Re: Do you participate in your local government?

                Yes I do.

                I, as chair of a Regional Planning Commission (RPC), was addressing the Burlington VT City Council. Not only were they not paying attention, they were talking amongst themselves. About 30 seconds into my talk (which was explaining some things which would affect the city), I got sorta ticked, and said "The RPC will be declaring Burlington's zoning null and void" without changing my inflection. The Executive Director of the RPC who was sitting next to me gasped, but I continued. About 20 seconds later, the mayor said "Excuse me, but did you just say that the city's zoning would be declared null and void?". I replied "Yes I did Mr. Mayor". Of course the city councilors listened to him & everyone freaked out. The mayor looked at me, saw my smile & shut everyone up. He then said "I believe Mr. Mott was testing to see if anyone was paying attention - and discovered that I was the only one who was. How about we all sit down and do him the courtesy of listening?".

                Sometimes you have to get people's attention.
                "If it ain't broke, you're not trying." - Red Green

                Comment

                • S.V. Airlie
                  Ancient Mariner
                  • Dec 2006
                  • 63914

                  #9
                  Re: Do you participate in your local government?

                  I've run for political office; County Rep twice. Lost both times for an average of ten votes. Against the local machine, I was happy with that. Not involved much now but, do vote in local elections always.

                  Comment

                  • Garret
                    Hills of Vermont
                    • Apr 2005
                    • 48606

                    #10
                    Re: Do you participate in your local government?

                    To the OP:

                    Having chaired many public meetings, including some that were pretty angry - the man in the video was an idiot. He knew he had 2 minutes. All he had to do was speak his piece succinctly and ask for a response. When a council or whatever has a lot of people who wish to speak, they have to limit people time-wise (boy do they!) - or else the meeting would go on all night.

                    Sure - the members should pay attention, but the speaker was quite correct - if a bit abrupt.
                    "If it ain't broke, you're not trying." - Red Green

                    Comment

                    • Art Haberland
                      Fluent in Typo
                      • May 2015
                      • 10190

                      #11
                      Re: Do you participate in your local government?

                      when I was a child my parents were instrumental in getting the government of our town changed. They helped change it into a mayor/council style. While we were in the process, the people in charge did everything in their power to dissuade us from doing so. Following us everywhere in police cars, pulling my mother over in our driveway (after following her for three miles) and taking 45 minutes to finally give her a warning. Fining us for breaking construction rules when we hadn't even lifted a paint brush, the list went on and on for close to year until we were successful.

                      My father then tried running for the council he helped create and was soundly defeated
                      "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito"

                      -Dalai Lama

                      Comment

                      • Todd D
                        Senior Member
                        • Sep 2007
                        • 4399

                        #12
                        Re: Do you participate in your local government?

                        I used to attend our annual town meeting, but quit after fifteen years when not a single proposal had been defeated. I see no point to attending now. Our town is run by two groups, the lobster fishers (all 25 of them) and the "it's for the children" clique. I mention the children/school group because our school age population is down by nearly 70% in the last 20 years, but people manage to actually increase our K-8 school staffing. We now have about 60 students and 16 teachers. A proposal to close our school and bus the kids to the next town failed over two issues - local control and busing. The school issue was not decided at town meeting - it got a vote outside the meeting. Local control is absurd since we would have proportional representation on the school board of the neighbor town and all the kids already attend the same high school where we have proportional representation with no complaints from the town. The busing issue is even more nuts since due to the locations of the two schools, the bus ride for more than half of our students would have been shorter and the bus ride to the high school is far longer. The next town is 3.5 miles away. Our per pupil cost is in the $30K range now, but that includes the high school where the per student cost is around $10K.

                        We have a policing issue similar to the school issue. The town has no police. Instead we contract with the county sheriff to have a deputy physically in the town for 40 hours a week. Two years ago the neighboring town, which does have a police department, proposed that the two towns join forces and have a single local police department. The cost for 24 hour a day coverage would have been about 80% of what we now pay the county sheriff for 40 hours a week, but the town voted it down in a referendum. It seems we actually have a large contingent that doesn't want any policing. We have a strong anti-authority group in the town. For example we have no building codes or inspection here, which means that more than half the houses in town are of extremely sub standard construction and can't get insurance. The people that own those houses complain about not being able to get insurance, but band together in opposition when ever a proposal to adopt the state building code comes up.
                        Last edited by Todd D; 03-25-2019, 08:02 AM.

                        Comment

                        • David G
                          Senior Member
                          • Dec 2003
                          • 89674

                          #13
                          Re: Do you participate in your local government?

                          I have attended meetings of various govt. bodies. I have testified. I have witnessed. I have lobbied. I have demonstrated.

                          The citizen in the OP was treated a bit shabbily, to be sure.

                          But - as Garret mentions - he used his time poorly. Struck me as a beginner to the process, hoping to dictate terms based upon his own (reasonable?) notions of fairness. Since he had no real hope of that, and since he muddled thru his time slot, his point was a bit muted. You'd think that a man of his age might have imbibed some of the lessons of Abby Hoffman, et.al. I hope he sticks with it, and learns from his misstep.
                          David G
                          Harbor Woodworks
                          https://www.facebook.com/HarborWoodworks/

                          "It was a Sunday morning and Goddard gave thanks that there were still places where one could worship in temples not made by human hands." -- L. F. Herreshoff (The Compleat Cruiser)

                          Comment

                          • Garret
                            Hills of Vermont
                            • Apr 2005
                            • 48606

                            #14
                            Re: Do you participate in your local government?

                            Originally posted by David G
                            I have attended meetings of various govt. bodies. I have testified. I have witnessed. I have lobbied. I have demonstrated.

                            The citizen in the OP was treated a bit shabbily, to be sure.

                            But - as Garret mentions - he used his time poorly. Struck me as a beginner to the process, hoping to dictate terms based upon his own (reasonable?) notions of fairness. Since he had no real hope of that, and since he muddled thru his time slot, his point was a bit muted. You'd think that a man of his age might have imbibed some of the lessons of Abby Hoffman, et.al. I hope he sticks with it, and learns from his misstep.
                            Nah - he'll be another "Damn Gubbmint never listens to us poor slobs" kinda guy.
                            "If it ain't broke, you're not trying." - Red Green

                            Comment

                            • David G
                              Senior Member
                              • Dec 2003
                              • 89674

                              #15
                              Re: Do you participate in your local government?

                              Originally posted by Garret
                              Nah - he'll be another "Damn Gubbmint never listens to us poor slobs" kinda guy.
                              Sadly... you could be right.
                              David G
                              Harbor Woodworks
                              https://www.facebook.com/HarborWoodworks/

                              "It was a Sunday morning and Goddard gave thanks that there were still places where one could worship in temples not made by human hands." -- L. F. Herreshoff (The Compleat Cruiser)

                              Comment

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