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catsittingstillYesterday was the February program for the League of Women Voters.
I was responsible for the program. At the start of the LWV "year" (which socially runs from September to May because we don't meet in the summer months) we'd intended to discuss the electoral college. However county politics has been strongly stirred up by a mostly newly elected County Commission gutting the school building project (rescinding the already approved funding and cutting it by sixty percent) funded by the former County Commission. In the process they ah... set some awkward precedents.
So in November we had a quick meeting of the Board and agreed that if Marty M., the Chairman of the County Commission would agree to talk to us we would change the January program to Structure and Function of County Government (still fitting in to our "Voting and Voter Awareness" theme for the year.
Marty agreed, and we were all set and then it was icy that day in January (our little corner of one of the Snowpocalypses) and we had to cancel. We shifted his talk to the February program, with his agreement. And I began to chew my nails again, reading the papers and working out what questions to ask about the recent sudden hiring of a friend of the County Mayor's as County Financial Director without interviewing any other candidates.
And what question to ask about how anyone working with the County Commission could be confident that funds voted to them in exchange for proposed work, or concessions would not subsequently be rescinded before they were paid.
And what question to ask about how the County Commission handles breaches of ethics.
And worried that if our speaker ended up wishing he'd never talked to us, we'd have a hard time getting more speakers. And worried that nobody would come. And worried that so many people would come we'd have little ability to apply social pressure to keep questions directed to the issues and not towards personalities (and there are some ...ah... objectionable personalities involved.)
It worked out okay. We had six people come who weren't members of the League (which sounds like nothing but is miles better than we did before.) The room was respectably but not uncomfortably full. There were plenty of questions. We were polite but managed to ask our questions--and I will say this for Marty, he didn't do much dodging.
It turns out--if he isn't just humoring us--he apparently agrees with us on a lot of things so he didn't have to.
But I think we gave Gail (the reporter from the local paper) something more to write about than usual. And several people told me, and Marty, how much they enjoyed the program and how much they appreciated his coming to talk.
And I got the booklets handed out to a lot of our members so I don't have to spend money on mailing them.
And today it is likely to snow. But I can see about working on the plans for the Binturong canoe design.
I was responsible for the program. At the start of the LWV "year" (which socially runs from September to May because we don't meet in the summer months) we'd intended to discuss the electoral college. However county politics has been strongly stirred up by a mostly newly elected County Commission gutting the school building project (rescinding the already approved funding and cutting it by sixty percent) funded by the former County Commission. In the process they ah... set some awkward precedents.
So in November we had a quick meeting of the Board and agreed that if Marty M., the Chairman of the County Commission would agree to talk to us we would change the January program to Structure and Function of County Government (still fitting in to our "Voting and Voter Awareness" theme for the year.
Marty agreed, and we were all set and then it was icy that day in January (our little corner of one of the Snowpocalypses) and we had to cancel. We shifted his talk to the February program, with his agreement. And I began to chew my nails again, reading the papers and working out what questions to ask about the recent sudden hiring of a friend of the County Mayor's as County Financial Director without interviewing any other candidates.
And what question to ask about how anyone working with the County Commission could be confident that funds voted to them in exchange for proposed work, or concessions would not subsequently be rescinded before they were paid.
And what question to ask about how the County Commission handles breaches of ethics.
And worried that if our speaker ended up wishing he'd never talked to us, we'd have a hard time getting more speakers. And worried that nobody would come. And worried that so many people would come we'd have little ability to apply social pressure to keep questions directed to the issues and not towards personalities (and there are some ...ah... objectionable personalities involved.)
It worked out okay. We had six people come who weren't members of the League (which sounds like nothing but is miles better than we did before.) The room was respectably but not uncomfortably full. There were plenty of questions. We were polite but managed to ask our questions--and I will say this for Marty, he didn't do much dodging.
It turns out--if he isn't just humoring us--he apparently agrees with us on a lot of things so he didn't have to.
But I think we gave Gail (the reporter from the local paper) something more to write about than usual. And several people told me, and Marty, how much they enjoyed the program and how much they appreciated his coming to talk.
And I got the booklets handed out to a lot of our members so I don't have to spend money on mailing them.
And today it is likely to snow. But I can see about working on the plans for the Binturong canoe design.
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no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 02:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 02:44 pm (UTC)But yeah, we're all real people here.
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Date: 2011-02-09 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 08:45 pm (UTC)The Finance Director was chosen by the Finance Committee, which he is not on. He agreed that it was a bad idea and set a bad precedent but didn't get a vote. The Chair of the Finance Committee was present and also agreed that it was a bad idea--he was one of the two people on the committee that voted against it. I pointed out that the *County* Commission has the power of the purse and can still vote to set the salary of the position to be anything they like. Marty said that the precedent was for it to be a certain amount. I promptly said, somewhat acidly, that the current County Commission did not have a history of placing much weight on precedent. There was a noticeable amount of laughter behind me, as it was a reference to rescinding the school funding, which has caused strong feeling. Marty looked down and said "No, no it doesn't." There was a little more back-and-forth about that but I'm not sure he will take my suggestion to heart.
He agreed that people couldn't be confident of funds from the County Commission, except that he was pretty sure that if a *contract* was actually signed it had to be a done deal. I pointed out that there were probably some trust issues that were going to make it difficult for the County Commission to persuade anybody to work with them, or for them, without cash in hand, and he agreed that there were some trust issues and probably some personality issues as well. He *did* kind of try to say that the school board had, ah, refused to work with the county commission eight years before which did seem a little bit like "they started it" but only a little bit.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 08:45 pm (UTC)