Monday, December 31, 2012

Resolution 9: Let it in!


When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius
Age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
The sun shine in
Let the sun shine, Let the sun shine in
THE SUN SHINE IN!




Sunday, December 30, 2012

Any thing in common?



Pacific is a geographical area populated by isolated groups and individuals, and whose community infrastructure has decayed and been dismantled. In the same way, families become dismantled and drift  apart as new generations grow up without shared  experiences. If you want an example of a government/community combination that exists within the confines of Pacific, consider Alpac Elementary School. That community of instructors, parents and youngsters has a common, constructive, positive focus that binds it together and is sustainable the education of children. The population served by the school, and involved with it, is distinct from and much more numerous than the public servants at the school.
For the City of Pacific, the leading adhesive that has been holding a few people together the past several months is the myth that Pacific is a community with a functional government that an evil man has destroyed. This group is characterized by the same trait that sometimes keeps couples together—couples who aren’t so much in love with each other as they are in love with the idea of being in love. That’s not enough.
Individuals who want to recall Mayor Cy Sun have the bit in their teeth and believe that, with the removal of this "evil man," things will “return to normal.” They are so much in love with the idea of a city that they have conveniently ignored reality  – that the voters in the City of Pacific elected Cy Sun because they were dissatisfied. And they were dissatisfied because the city  has been poorly run and has abused its powers and estranged itself from the population it served for at least 10 years, and that once  this current issue of the evil leader is resolved, the estrangement will continue.
A government without a community will lose its way and decay. That is its nature. Until this disparate population has something in common to bind it together with a positive, sustaining focus, it too will drift and its bonds will decay. 
The past is not necessarily a guarantee of the future, but it is a pretty good indicator. And Pacific’s distant and recent pasts are characterized by turmoil, scandal, power grabs, incompetence, in-breeding, corruption, abuses and insolence. Without community to keep it in check, Pacific’s city government simply awaits the rise of another buffoon or charlatan lacking a vision that is shared by the population served. It was the absence of community which allowed Pacific to come to the precipice. The evidence for this is right there, for any reasonable person to observe.




Saturday, December 29, 2012

Resolution No. 8 Ask, and Answer




I was reminded of an interesting experience that occurred several years ago when I was culling my computer and rediscovering old memoranda. I came across a memo I distributed to my colleagues on the Pacific City Council pointing out that Pacific’s public safety department seemed to be one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive, among small cities in the region. 
I laid out the figures as well as I could, based on e-mail responses from the different cities. The first response I received from my colleagues were that these were LIES! They actually shouted this out. Yes, that's right. They shouted.
This was one of those poignant moments when pubic officials display true stupidity. If someone’s going to lie to you, they are not going to put the lie in writing and explain how they developed their information by specifically directing the reader to their resources. Anyone was at liberty to double check and determine whether the information was sound or not. (By the way, this is the scientific approach – say what you determined, and show how you arrived at that conclusion, so that people can double check and correct you if you are wrong. This is  not the approach that liars take.)
I point this out, because of a flap over whether Pacific Council member Clint Steiger unfairly acquired a truck from the City of Pacific. The story came up in e-mails from my friend, Jeanne Fancher, Pacific’s de-facto news medium.
Now first of all, there’s plenty of reasons to distrust Mr. Steiger. He pulled the wool over the eyes of several council members several years ago to trick them into illegally confirming a new city treasurer. He turned a blind eye to several glaring abuses by Pacific’s controversial Public Safety Director, John Calkins, who should have been dismissed years ago. No reason to trust Clint Steiger. But in this case, Ms. Fancher, whom I trust, said he acquired the truck on the up-and-up.
Well, OK. But let’s look at the experience I had. When I raised a question, I was called a liar.
How do you establish trust with the public , or anyone, if when they ask questions they are called liars? Or they are insulted, the way Prior Mayor Richard Hildreth would interrupt, insult and demean anyone who tried to speak to the city council?  How do you establish trust when you try to suppress a constitutionally-protected march to challenge the city’s policing policies?
Short Answer: You don’t.
What you end up with is people who disengage and then toss mud, frequently from behind the bushes.
There are many examples of why the City of Pacific has not earned the public’s trust.
Here’s how you establish trust: You welcome questions. You allow the public and members of the government to ask any question, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you feel. And you answer it cheerfully and courteously. You do this so effectively that they feel comfortable to ask follow-up questions. And when you make a mistake, you acknowledge it and you thank– that's what I said: thank – the person who discovered it. And when you do that, often enough, you will see the accusations disappear and the trust emerges. Imagine that!

New Year’s resolution No 8:  Ask questions courteously and fearlessly. Answer them courageously and patiently.

Build trust.





Friday, December 28, 2012

Explain this to me...



 This is one of those rare days when I have two postings on the same day. This is the update for what’s below, based on an e-mailing from Jeanne Fancher, Pacific’s de-facto one-woman news media. My question is how did the state auditor miss the fact that for 10 years, Pacific wasn’t keeping its financial records properly?
Here’s what Jeanne writes in her e-mail:

Finance Director Garrison and her staff have found accounting miss-entries and re-entered data with the Correct BARS codes, going back 10 years. They are completing a yearly State Audit--- with fewer "questions" than in previous years. They have produced monthly Financial reports, updated the 2012 Budget, and produced the needed spreadsheets used by the Mayor and Council to propose and adopt the 2013 Budget—in half the time (or less) allocated in previous years. Ms Garrison is not shy about telling the Electeds that she follows the RCW rules stringently, and is not going to jail—for anyone.

What exactly does that mean? Does this mean we had non-competent and inefficient staff keeping our books for 10 years? When I served on the city council I openly acknowledged that finances were my weakness and I encouraged someone with those skills to emerge as an opposition candidate when I ran for re-election. So I find it interesting to learn that for ten years and under the eye of two different mayors, our records were not being kept properly. This statement raises the question whether this was typical of the city administration. So I ask again, what does that mean? 

Cy Sun is no superhero. But what I’m perceiving here is a possible celebration of how wonderful things are going to be now, without the slightest acknowledgement that without Cy Sun upsetting the applecart, this sloppy work would have continued.  The quotation about “not going to jail for anyone” represents a refreshing attitude that’s long overdue, because what the voters of Pacific have witnessed for some time is behavior by some public officials who probably should have spent some time in the slammer. And one of them is still on the payroll.

If Cy Sun gets recalled, it’s time. But maybe it’s also time to acknowledge that upsetting the applecart may be just what the doctor ordered—if Pacific can keep its nose clean from now on.





Resolution 7: don't be naïve

Consider the facts of the mayoral election cycle preceding Cy Sun's election:
Richard Hildreth was elected mayor by 63 percent of the vote over Howard Erickson. Four years later he was soundly tossed out of office by an unknown and incompetent write-in candidate, Cy Sun.
Gary Hulsey was elected to the council by 97 percent over token opposition. He is not expected to run again.
Clint Steiger, who was booted out of office four years earlier and then reappointed by the council to fill a vacancy, was elected by 97 percent over token opposition. He is not expected to run again.
Josh Putnam  was elected by 98 percent, but in the most recent election was nearly defeated by an unknown who demonstrated no skills.

Those who believe that the granting of very expensive insurance coverage with half the benefit of the past policies, in combination with the recall of Mayor  Cy Sun, will be the salvation of Pacific are as secure as the individual who watches from the sea shore as the ocean withdraws, without comprehending what that vast empty basin before him fortells.

Vote pluralities like the ones listed above are an indication of a political vacuum and a body politic that has few survival resources. Pacific remains politically sick.

A word to the wise: "A leader who does not produce leaders is not a great leader."
Ram Charan.

End of the Countdown   Beginning of the Future