"They don't answer questions, hoping that if they delay long enough you'll give up."
"Public hearings and public comment at meetings are a sham. They've already made up their minds."
No, this isn't Royal Oakers talking about zoning or historical districts or library funds or liquor licenses. These comments were made during a formative meeting of civic activists from Allen Park, Bloomfield Hills, Dearborn Heights, Leonard, Madison Heights, Oak Park, Oxford, Romulus, Royal Oak, St. Clair Shores, Sterling Heights, Troy, and Warren.
Voice sat in on one of the group's organizational meetings when it had yet to find a name for itself and to create a mission statement. Their concerns range from bond issues to perceived violations of the Open Meetings Act. Indeed, in a recent news article addressing the ongoing Royal Oak "historic" battle (click the green button on this page), an attorney for the Michigan Department of State, opines, "There's a popular movement right now in the United States that involves reaction to some types of regulations, including historic preservation."
You bet there is!
If Voice were writing the mission statement for the newly forming group of civic activists, it would be: To regain control over local government by overcoming the too-common practice of elected and appointed officials to use their knowledge of governmental procedures to avoid effective citizen oversight. -- originally published in 2005
Now it's 2013: Unfortunately, governing bodies still feel compelled to leave a "legacy." School boards can erect facilities with board members' names on dedication plaques. At most, frequently changing local legislative bodies can only leave ordinances and policies. One unfortunate result of that is a "we need to pass a law" mindset about matters which really don't need legislative attention.
During hard economic times, citizens insist that governmental bodies "Do more with less." Good times or bad, my preference is "Do less!"
Society will always have its government-loving activists at one end, libertarians at the other, a few moderates, and a lot of uninformed and uncaring citizens in between. I label myself a moderate libertarian, if that isn't a contradiction in terms.
I've not attempted to learn whether that group whose formative meeting I attended in 2005 ever came to be.
Frank Versagi is the editor of Versagi Voice.
