Miss Vicky's Offhand Remarks

"Feedback we want to hear"

Gordie and I trotted down to City Hall this afternoon to give our two cents on the council's "strategic directions" document. I had been watching some of the proceedings on Rogers in the morning and was quite shocked at the manner which Councillor Harder, as Deputy Mayor, was running the meeting. Speakers were interrupted and berated if they strayed (what she considered to be) "off topic". She complained that she just couldn't understand why some of the speakers representing citizens' advisory committees and community groups felt so threatened.

By the time we got down there - about 1:30 for my 2:50 presentation - she was even more punchy. Pretty much any presentation that brought up the issue of potential privatization of services was guaranteed to be interrupted. She even chided one presenter for being "rude".

Memo to council: if you don't want public input to be repetitive or your days to be long, then maybe you should consider holding hearings over several days, and asking questions that might yield the kind of input you're interested in hearing. Or even better, involving the public in policy development in the first place. Seventeen days of discussions at a golf couse with no public input does not inspire confidence. And the corporatespeak in the "consultation document" leads one to assume the worst about council's intentions - hence the sense of feeling threatened.

As for my presentation, I didn't quite get through it in my 5 minutes. Fair enough. I'll send it by email. But after I was cut off, Councillor Harder responded to my call for strategic planning that references 20/20 by dismissing and misunderstanding what I was trying to say. I don't blame her. She and the Mayor were chattering away during that part of my presentation.

The only question I got was from Councillor Legendre, who suggested that I let Gordie have the mic ( I was trying to keep him away from it during my presentation). I said I would have, but I was afraid of the feedback it would cause. Harder quipped "Now that's the kind of feedback we're looking for".

Excuse me? Static feedback is preferable than the contribution of engaged citizens? You may not like what you hear but you were elected to hear it. And there is more to public consultation than a marathon session of 5 minute presentations during which councillors are chatting, moving in and out of the room , and so on. It's about engaging citizens and stakeholders in a dialogue (that's a two way conversation, for you councillors that may not be familiar with the notion), about sincerely seeking input and listening hard to the feedback you get. What people had to say today may not have any nicer to listen to than the screech of a 9 month old grabbing the microphone and using it as a soother, but it your job to listen. So find a better way of structuring public discussions in a way that provides positive constructive input, or sit back and take what you deserve. Because you only get the respect you give, and I wasn't feeling a lot of respect in that room today.

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