Does Aspen need more brute force in local government?
Ref1 gives you a club, not a voice.
"Test till failure" is an engineering term. You run the system past all safe stress levels in order to see where it breaks first. That seems to be the impetus behind Referendum 1. You throw as many monkey wrenches into the system as possible and in theory this will force City Council to fix the code. It's a brute force strategy. I can tell you from experience you never know which bolt will break first and you never know how far that bolt will fly. Just watch a few "big boom" episodes on Mythbusters.
"Trust me I'm an engineer." It's a classic.
I've asked before and I'll ask again- what are we doing to increase communication between City Hall and the citizens?
Here are some suggestions for improvement which are not in Referendum 1:
At 5pm when the City Council meeting starts ask who in the gallery is there for which issue. Then listen to the issues which have the most public comment first. Public first, Council and City Hall business last. Anyone who wants to wait to the wee hours to hear if the schedule will still be posted by the front door on the cork board may do so. Yes, some Staffers may have to hang around longer and be paid overtime- I get that- but it should be the public first. Our time is valuable also.
I would like to consign clicker sessions to the 9th circle of hell.
Prepackaged questions and prepackaged answers don't tell you the truth, sitting down with a cuppa and listening, that gets you to the truth. I wish our City Staffers would read "Powerpoint is evil" by Edward Tufte - or just go straight to the Powerpoint Gettysburg address on Youtube. More paper isn't job security. Knowing your neighbors is job security.
Take all the time used on crafting those clever clicker sessions to contact people who are interested in particular issues instead- the people who show up, or who live next door to the project, or who use the proposed service. If you reach out to people before the meeting you can actually solve a lot of problems prior the meeting. Radical, I know. Reach out via phone, email or even (gasp) in person and tell people about an upcoming work session, or a public hearing, or a presentation which interests them. It's devilishly difficult to know what is happening and when it's happening for both the City and the County. We should fix that.
Some people work 9-5 for a living, yes even in Aspen. Schedule some public outreach during non-working hours. You might even schedule presentations outside of City Hall- like Justice Snows, or Wagner Park, or the ARC. A pool party would cost a heck of a lot less than a special election on variances.
Once, just once I'd like to see all the City employees in one place. There's a fabulous photo in the Library of all the people who helped make the first FIS course grouped in Wagner. I'd like to see that picture for all the people who work for the City. If we meet the people in government face to face instead of just wading through their stacks of paper maybe we can start to treat each other like fellow human beings.
Intimidation isn't a long term strategy. Mutual respect and cooperation work better.
Ref1 doesn't solve the problem; it exacerbates the problem.
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