Let's face it, if you made a reality TV show out of the politics in Aspen it could get better ratings than Survivor. Our last City Council/ Mayoral election is a perfect example. We had 11 people running for 3 openings. Three of these 11 already had seats on the Council but were vying for the center seat of Mayor. The cast of characters* was equally "Survivoresque" (*couldn't find the mayoral "squirm night" grassroots episode- I'll link it later if I find it)
Once the smoke cleared we had two new Council members and a "tie" for Mayor. It wasn't an exact "tie" but close enough to call for a run off. The winner of the run off was a sitting Council member which meant that the remainder of his 2 year term would be filled by an appointee.
Spin the wheel again.... 9 candidates for the vacant seat.... which resulted in a deadlock between two "finalists" with a 2 to 2 vote on the newly elected City Council.
Does your head hurt yet? It could have been settled by a throw of the dice (no really, I'm not kidding) but at the 11th hour one vote flipped- and there was no dice throw (much to the dismay of our local press who were ready to photograph every angle of that toss).
Why all the fuss for a town of 6000 you may ask? It's simple, that "small" town has a yearly budget tickling the edges of $100 million. Yep, I said $100 million. Now, there's a high stakes crap shoot for ya...
Last night was the first meeting of the full "new" 5 member Aspen City Council. I attended for the "public comment" segment where anyone can come forward and talk for 3 minutes about things which are not on the agenda. I was the last one to speak in the "comment" section. I gave them all a present. I gave everybody a copy of happy
which is a great documentary on what makes people happy.
The happy documentary goes deeper than our stereotypical ideas of happiness into what really makes people feel good. When Roko Belic (the director) was presenting this at Mountain Film at the Wheeler one of the questions from the audience was "If you had to name just one thing which makes us happy what would it be?" Roko's answer was instant, "Community."
That's why I gave the Council a copy of the dvd I believe that "the happiness quotient" should be the major driver behind all decisions made by them.
Once the smoke cleared we had two new Council members and a "tie" for Mayor. It wasn't an exact "tie" but close enough to call for a run off. The winner of the run off was a sitting Council member which meant that the remainder of his 2 year term would be filled by an appointee.
Spin the wheel again.... 9 candidates for the vacant seat.... which resulted in a deadlock between two "finalists" with a 2 to 2 vote on the newly elected City Council.
Does your head hurt yet? It could have been settled by a throw of the dice (no really, I'm not kidding) but at the 11th hour one vote flipped- and there was no dice throw (much to the dismay of our local press who were ready to photograph every angle of that toss).
Why all the fuss for a town of 6000 you may ask? It's simple, that "small" town has a yearly budget tickling the edges of $100 million. Yep, I said $100 million. Now, there's a high stakes crap shoot for ya...
Last night was the first meeting of the full "new" 5 member Aspen City Council. I attended for the "public comment" segment where anyone can come forward and talk for 3 minutes about things which are not on the agenda. I was the last one to speak in the "comment" section. I gave them all a present. I gave everybody a copy of happy
which is a great documentary on what makes people happy.
The happy documentary goes deeper than our stereotypical ideas of happiness into what really makes people feel good. When Roko Belic (the director) was presenting this at Mountain Film at the Wheeler one of the questions from the audience was "If you had to name just one thing which makes us happy what would it be?" Roko's answer was instant, "Community."
That's why I gave the Council a copy of the dvd I believe that "the happiness quotient" should be the major driver behind all decisions made by them.
I also gave them a finger puzzle...
The more you pull away from each other - the more trapped you are.
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