Listen to the Silence

This letter to the editor was written by Democratic Board of Education candidate Patrick Doyle:

Experts have looked at the numbers and feel the evidence is clear; our country is in the midst of a civic decline. For the past few months I have been putting this theory to the test by attending Board of Education meetings in Tolland.

At these meetings I have noticed elected officials seem as frustrated as anyone—often throwing up their hands and lamenting that no matter what they do people just don’t show up. After hearing these frustrations I decided maybe I should ask a different question. Not, why don’t more people participate, but why would citizens participate in a public meeting?

We live in a time of increasingly abbreviated conversation-often opting for a self-imposed limit of 140 characters. Compared to Twitter; 2 minutes of public participation at a town meetings seems ominously large. But when compared to how deeply the decisions being made can affect people’s lives, as well as the need to address real problems with finite resources; officials can hardly blame citizens who are skeptical of the impact of a 2 minute testimony.

To make matters worse; citizens are rarely provided accesses to the information needed to fully formulate a well-reasoned opinion--let alone suggest a (gasp!) better solution. Even if a citizen demonstrates the commitment to wade through all that, I have rarely seen officials ask a clarifying question to demonstrate they are actively listening. After the citizen takes their seat, the elected board then has the opportunity to explain away or refute the feedback given.

Within this context why would any reasonable adult put their lives on hold to wade through hours long meetings just to get those two minutes? What if the problem is not that people don’t care? What if instead of a civic decline we simply suffer from relying on outdated tricks and tools that no longer meet the needs of how our lives (and world) have changed?

We need to reimagine the process. It can start by moving beyond 2-minute monologues. The challenges our communities face require deeper conversations and the curiosity to explore new solutions that may better serve the interests of everyone involved. It’s no longer acceptable for elected officials to sit back and wonder why people have stopped coming to them. It’s no longer ok to point fingers at the other party instead of actually addressing the aspirations and concerns of citizens. There is no longer a place for opaque or hidden political agendas. In 2013 both the flow of information and the flow of people’s lives move too quickly to indulge in these pastimes.

Officials need to start by moving from behind the board table to meet people where they are (literally). Groups of people gather in the community every day. Elected officials should make an effort to go to where people are and listen to what they are saying. Towns need to provide more information before meetings if they expect real public participation. When consultants make presentations those presentations should be available prior to the meeting so citizens do not need to respond to information before they have a full understanding of what is being presented. Finally, there should be an honest acknowledgement of motivation. If a town is conducting a facility study to explore the feasibility of closing a school, citizens should know that when asked to give feedback on the study.

We might not be able to change Washington, but we can have these conversations with our neighbors right now. Town leaders have the ability to rethink the mechanisms for citizen involvement (although they also need the disposition). So I hope you will look for those leaders on November 5—and stay involved after the election. We can do better together.