Participatory Democracy

I believe in democracy on the small scale. By small scale, I mean on the local level. Before I became mayor of my town, it was very difficult to go before the council and make any kind of a presentation. One had to contact the city clerk at least a week before the meeting and get placed on the agenda, "with approval." The standard city agenda how has a segment called "Open Hearing of the Public" on it. Anyone with business before the city can stand up and get three minutes - or longer - for any kind of issue. I've heard a lot of them, silly and significant. Now that I'm no longer on the council, I avail myself of the opportunity on occasion, though nowhere near as often as I'm tempted to. Frankly, I'm just often busy, not to mention home too late to make a meeting that lasts 20 minutes. (How do you discuss a city's worth of issues in 20 minutes?)

But I went Tuesday night. I'd heard, from a source I trust but will not name, that one of our (the city's) employees was home on a workman's comp injury. I was Mayor when he got hired, and am concerned about his welfare specifically, as well as generically about all city employees and citizens, including my family. The reason for his injury had the potential to harm again, any number of us, and I had some questions. His injury is a chemical burn to his respiratory system, so minor as to go nearly unnoted at the time but which worsened quickly and sent him to the hospital for evaluation. Questioning pinned the blame on his exposure during the assigned job of moving city chemicals used for water treatment out of one city well house to another location while the well house was having some construction done.

Naturally, I had some questions, and took them to the council meeting. I needed, first of all, a fact check. Was my source correct? Second, I've handled nasty chemicals for years, both in Georgia with stuff as deadly as paraquat, and on the job now moving small quantities of HazMat materials around. I know that there is no exposure from a sealed container. None. You can tip it, jostle it, lift and lower it, drive it around over potholes and speed bumps, and so long as the container is properly sealed and you don't puncture it, there is no exposure. So what happened? I had a list of questions about that as well, knowing just enough to ask the uncomfortable, but also enough to be able to use the information to assess risk reasonably well. An inhalant chemical exposure does not limit itself to a single stationary location, and on any given hour I live down wind from any of the three wells as well as other city buildings. So does my father, possibly the city resident most at risk for respiration issues.

I wanted to know what was leaking and how the city allowed a situation to produce a leak. Was it our storage containers, aging and no longer sealing properly, but kept in the interest of not spending tax money? Sloppy delivery damage? Were they cutting corners to save money in these tight times by cutting back of OSHA training classes, and did those cover this type of situation? Where were these chemicals being stored now, and presuming they needed to be returned to the well house after construction, could/would they be handled in a way that there was absolutely no threat to public or employee safety?

I maintain these are all legitimate questions that any private citizen - as I am now - has a right to ask of their city, and further has the right to ask in an open, public forum.

Our mayor, as I have come to expect from experience, took it as a personal attack and attacked back. He berated me on being "aggressive", on not having my facts straight (I did ask for a fact check in my opening remarks), and for addressing the council as a whole on the issue. Well, Kyle, where better than where everybody who might have the answers I wanted was assembled in one room where they could be answered? If I needed info from the engineer or the Public Works supervisor, here they were. When he told me I should have called somebody in the city - on the QT of course - rather than bring this up in public, he knew nothing about my time frame from learning of the injury to posing questions, what my schedule was like, what else was going on in my life. None of which was pertinent to me, since as I said, I asked my questions where the group with the answers was gathered. And none of this stuff was or should have been secret. Possibly embarrassing, but them's the breaks. Deal with it. Stuff happens all the time, and very little of it is about anything personal to the Mayor. At least, it shouldn't be.

But perhaps he knows something I don't which makes it personal.

I calmly replied, when he was done, that I didn't appreciate his turning my questions on public safety into him making a personal attack on me. He started to deny having done so, but I interrupted, "Of course you did. You called me 'aggressive'. "

Why Kyle takes any questions as a personal attack is a mystery to me. I could speculate, but that seems unfair. Fun, but unfair. He seems threatened by me, possibly in particular, possibly just as any person who asks a question. I haven't asked, and he hasn't volunteered the information. Part of the reason I haven't asked is the fact that calling him with a question results in getting shouted at. I prefer to avoid that, and I don't know which buttons not to push where he's concerned. His reaction puzzles me. (To be honest, it occasionally amuses me as well.) But I'm thick-skinned enough to go ahead and ask when it's important. And when it's about respiratory chemical exposure, it's important.

After a few minutes of Kyle telling me how awful I was to ask any of this, he stated he was refusing to answer my questions.

He also wondered aloud how the news had gotten to me - who blabbed? With his attitude, I was not about to name any names. Why burn a source by opening them up to one of his attacks? Hey, Kyle, you live in a small town. People talk, and the juicier the item, the faster and farther it spreads. Human nature. Deal with it.

The Public Works supervisor spoke up and categorically denied that any spill happened. I didn't suggest a spill, merely a leak. After all, whatever it was, it was airborne. No spill required, and my questions along that score remain unanswered. He also insisted that training was adequate and ongoing (good: the city is not choosing to save tax dollars that way), and the employee was properly supervised in the job. He phrased it in a way that implied the employee was at fault, letting that hang as something being investigated. Sounds to the educated ear like a certain somebody is still unemployed and the Mayor and PWS are showing many signs of creating an opening and ushering him in. (Same way PWS came in, with Kyle jumping at the chance to create an opening.) This comment was far from the first indication of that, for anyone paying attention.

And as to supervision, his comment raised more questions than it answered. Was he on-site? If not, why not? If so, why was one exposed and the other not? Did he remind the injured employee to use respiratory protection? Did that employee refuse? Or was the atmosphere - somewhat antagonistic on a good day - such that it discouraged taking the extra minutes needed for protection from something deemed unlikely?

I chose not to raise these questions, not just due to employee data-privacy laws, but because any reference to quality of supervision would have come across as a challenge, and not as an inquiry into public health and safety issues. Had I seriously been interested in raising a ruckus, that would have done it. This was not the time nor forum. Rather, these issues could be passed along via my source back to the employee in question, quietly and privately.

Hey, nobody reads my blog, right?

The Mayor wished to move on, but something interesting happened. One of our newest council members, Jesse K., spoke up and requested time to actually address my issues. He had heard concerns for heath and safety, and decided it was proper to address them. Apparently he'd taken notes while I was speaking, because he went down my list and answered my concerns in order. Even if it was an answer of "we don't know yet," he did his best to address the issues.

After the meeting was adjourned, I approach him and offered my hand, thanking him for the respect he showed me. If he continues to be dedicated to the city, listening to the citizens and identifying the issues presented, separating issues from ego, and if he maintains integrity in the process, he could go far. He seems like somebody I could respect in the Mayor's seat. This guy gets it.

Welcome to the council, Jesse.