I attended the Town Council meeting tonight intending to write up a recap of the meeting. I took copious notes but I’m not going to write the recap as planned. Written notes could not give a fair picture of what happened. After an acrimonious discussion of several agenda items, the meeting ended with a vote of 3 to 2 to go into a closed executive session and two councilors and the town staff members walked out, refusing to participate in the executive session. The remaining councilors then asked the public to leave. Several audience members refused, saying the session was illegal. When I left, the remaining councilors and the remaining audience members were vigorously debating whether the public had a right to stay and whether the meeting was legal.
South Berwick’s town government is broken. The relationships between the Council and the Manager and among the Council members are strained to a point where it is destructive to their ability to govern. Even before tonight’s meeting devolved, discussions of issues frequently include substantive points, challenges to the process, innuendos and personal sniping all braided together, slowing down decision making and obscuring issues. I’m not naming names or pointing fingers here. From my vantage point, not a one of them was blameless in what happened tonight.
What is sad is that all of the people involved are earnest people who care about this town and have much to offer. South Berwick has several major opportunities on the horizon: the purchase of the St. Michael’s property, regional work on economic development, a new library, and a master plan, all of which could reap benefits to this town far into the future. It will be tragic if our town government is too dysfunctional to make these things happen.
I don’t know what the answer is. I know it isn’t scapegoating one or two people. This is a problem of how the whole works together. As a citizen I demand more from the Town Council and the Manager. I want them to look beyond their personal interests and figure out how to work together to make this town work. I want them to establish a level of trust between the Council and the Manager so that the Council can provide him with direction and oversight but then let him do his job without micromanaging. I want them to work a lot harder to develop an ongoing dialogue with the citizens of this town. I want the citizens of South Berwick, the Council and the Manager to come to a consensus on a vision for this town so that we have something to guide the decision making in this town.
I will be waiting to see how the Council and Manager move forward from tonight’s meeting. I hope citizens will fill the Council Chambers at the next Town Council meeting and demand from them the kind of government South Berwick deserves.
–Molly Colman
Molly – I’d be interested in your account of some of what actually was discussed. I’m not so interested in the discussions among the councilors, I’m interested in what kinds of questions were posed to our town manager (who is a paid professional), and the content and nature of his responses. I’m interested in how the discussions with agenda items, and also the discussions surounding the refusal to participate in the executive session (which was voted by a majority of the council).
I also think there should be increased citizen interest in thebcouncil at this time. This blog is an excellent tool for that. Thanks.
Centralism vs. Democracy
Molly, what you witnessed on Monday evening results from years of struggle between two different philosophical ideals.
On one hand there are the advocates of centralism where a few or one leader emerges to decide what’s best for the group or in our case the Town. Decisions of the rulers are absolute and questions are discouraged or outright not permitted.
On the other hand there are advocates of consensus decision-making where the leaders take as long as necessary to build support of ideas or policies. In this sense the leaders willingly take a back seat and let the policies emerge from the confluence or blending of ideas.
Viewed in absolute terms neither position is 100% right. We need empowered leaders to be decisive on established principles and act during emergencies for the good of the whole. We also need leaders who are willing to stand back and promote discussion by their constituents who are encouraged to offer ideas or commentary on those issues that are not yet settled matters of policy or involve long term commitments.
We are clearly at a watershed point in our town affairs. This is illustrated by the RDA bill language currently being debated and the recent proposal to restrict town councilor access for advice and counsel.
More central control or less, we need citizens to weigh in on this. Our town manager was hired and received a contract extension by councilors that favored the more central power approach. The current make up of the council, as shown by their majority vote to table restrictions on councilor access and research, has demonstrated less support for central control. My view is the temper tantrums of Monday are manifestations of frustration with a lack of central command power and control.
My position is there are relatively few true emergencies, like a road wash -out, that require immediate action by our town government. The best policies result from the widest airing of ideas from as many points of view as can be solicited. If a citizen feels rushed then a mental flag should go up and ask, “Why?” We then must have the ability to raise appropriate questions in forums for consideration by the whole without personal accusations or “ad hominem” attacks.
As we approach our local elections in November, one can hope these topics continue to be aired.
Thank you for offering this forum,
Jack
Molly,
I encourage you to post your meeting notes from last Monday’s town council meeting. First person accounts are all that the public shall have as a record of the meeting. Based upon inquiry at the town clerk’s office, the tape is blank and copies are not available.
RIP, Rose Mary Woods,
Jack
I am working on a write up of the meeting. It should be posted in the next day or two. This is why we need public access television in South Berwick. Residents should be able to watch all the meetings. Based on the agreement with Comcast I guess that is a long way off, but we at least should be assured that meetings are recorded and available for download as podcasts.