On Answering Citizens' Questions

A new feature of City Council meetings this year is that questions from the public are taken down, researched and answered at a subsequent meeting. Plaintalker has a few comments on that process.

First of all, the interval between meetings now that there is only one agenda-fixing and one regular meeting can vary from a week to three weeks. And while there are a few regulars who attend every meeting,  research meeting documents at the public library in advance and may even preview topics on blogs, many people come with specific neighborhood issues such as speeding on their block or road conditions. Another segment includes individuals who have longstanding grievances against certain public employees and bring them to the council venue for airing in public and on local television.

So the first group is usually around at subsequent meetings. One hopes the next type of questioner may get contacted after the meeting for more specifics and a phone number for follow-up. The last group may never be satisfied with whatever answer the administration comes up with, short of a public flogging or worse, so we will leave them out of the commentary.

How likely is it that the middle group will return to a subsequent meeting at some time remove from the one where they asked the question? Possible, but not too likely. Those citizens really need a one-on-one response if at all feasible, so they can share it with their neighbors who also suffer the same problem.

The first group, the regulars, probably will be in attendance and perhaps the answers they get will be of general interest. They may be raising policy questions, though sometimes, as in the case of one individual, the goal is mainly to keep up public interest and concern about a single issue, i.e., the lack of a full-service hospital in Plainfield.

At the Feb. 11 regular meeting, Rev. Jason Greer voiced concerns on two topics. One was the proposed concession stand at Joe Black Field, which has been a bone of contention ever since it became known that the $71,000 pre-fab concrete structure would require additional preparation and installation costs that would drive up the total to nearly $200,000. Greer was objecting to Councilman William Reid's notion that a lunch truck could have served just as well. Reid is a tenacious arguer when he wants to contradict something and voted "no" on the resolution after speaking at length about alternatives.

Greer was not exactly tilting at windmills, but at this late juncture, no matter how the purchase of the stand came about, the city was apparently obligated to concede on the ancillary costs, as witnessed by the "yes" votes of the other six council members.

Greer was also perturbed by the hiring of a new, non-resident tax collector who was also given the title of tax search officer.

His concern was such that Plaintalker sought to reassure him after the meeting that the person named knew the city well and had previously served here in the same role. The second title was not a whole extra job, but a statutory title for a specific function.

Greer had worried that the candidate might not be "pro-city" and would have "too much power" with two titles and as a non-resident would not show enough interest in the city.

The issue of non-residency had been a hot one up until 2006, when top posts all went to individuals who were granted waivers of residency. The requirement for a non-resident city employee to move here within a specified time, with exceptions for public safety staff, is still on the books, but waivers have been granted to those with highest salaries and greatest responsibilities ever since it became a non-issue in 2006.

This explanation was not meant to condone the practice, but simply to point out it had become the rule rather than the exception and the new guy was not getting any speical advantage.

Anyway, I hoped a few words of explanation from my long view of city government might prevent Rev. Greer from going away thinking somebody was pulling a fast one on the citizens in this case.

Tonight, three weeks later, if Rev. Greer is present, he can hear the official response.