AIRPORT ADVISORY BOARD

 A BREATH OF FRESH AIR TRANSPARENCY FOUND IT’S WAY INTO HERETOFORE RESTRICTED AIR SPACE

Regular Meeting of SG City Council was held May 14^th in the City Hall Conference Room where a self-imposed limit of PUBLIC INPUT is sustained depending on topic matter and welcomed personality in attendance. Transparency and understanding is the objective… Is it not?  Roberts Rules of Order do not apply. It is what it is…A Public Airing of Public Business isn’t it? The public is permitted to…Listen…But not to speak. The Public may or may not be extended the courtesy of, viewing…charts/graphs/photos circulated as part of discussion. Elected officials are in control. Good manners and respect has nothing to do with it. It’s strictly Business as defined by city government. Active Citizen Participation is only important when elected officials deem it so.  

Folks, those in attendance today consisted of Elected Officials, City Staff, one reporter from the Spectrum and one from SG Newspapers, and yours truly, concerned citizen. Scott B. Taylor, Water Services Director, bless his heart had completed his presentation… which had included an overview of the salary caps placed on Water Dept. Employees and equity needed. Scott was fighting for his employees, recognizing that there was room for improvement concerning merit pay etc. Scott made constructive suggestions on how to address the needs of his employees. The Police and Fire Chief had previously represented their respective departments citing employee retention issues that identified declining retirement benefits. Being the good supervisor that he is Scott suggested ways to improve salary conditions, for long term employees… something akin to a one time annual bonus was mentioned. Just having heard concerns of retirement benefits going from 50% to 35%...and knowing that bonus payments often are not included in highest 3 years calculations for retirement…I  spoke up and asked…will this suggested form of compensation be included in retirement benefits? A simple question is it not?  As mentioned earlier, no outsiders were present… but two reporters, and me to be inconvenienced by my untimely question on behalf of city employees. I was promptly informed that this Meeting of City Council did not allow for questions/input from the audience.  I immediately recognized the power and authority of this body and refrained from further comment. I wish to now Publicly Say I am Sorry to Mayor, Council and City Staff. I should have recognized the need for expediency and comfort of those present. After all, a Public Meeting in a city hall conference room is no place for a single member of the public to ask for clarification of what has been discussed. My only excuse is that I was caught up with concern for city employees and was transported back in time with Councilman Bowcutt’s comment concerning drinking water… “In my day not drinking downstream from cattle” was most important to know. In my mind I still have visions of Norman Rockwell drawings depicting a public gathering in which someone stands up and exercises his freedom to speak. I am sorry to say…those days are apparently gone in a SG Council Meeting. For this I am truly sorry.  

 You would be quite right to assume, it is not easy to endure the rigors of dealing with the overwhelming powers of city hall. You might also be right to say… Ed, if you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen. Right, just remember that President Truman’s sage advice applies equally to members of city government. Local government is where the rubber meets the road. If you can’t speak in your own town meeting we might as well just put a chain around our ankle and shut up and be quiet and do what we are told.

I feel it necessary to bring this to the Public’s Attention so that you might see the similarity and pattern that is in place for restricting or limiting public awareness of the actions of city government. As an example I offer last week’s Council Meeting…in which City Residents were admonished to limit their comments to the narrow confines outlined by city government when hearing a General Plan Amendment. If this is not enough to cause you to reflect on the need for checks and balance in city government…I direct your attention to the refusal of our city government to openly discuss Code Enforcement Reform as well as litigation issues that are part and parcel of having an informed citizenry…to oversee the performance of our government. Do you not see what is happening to our city…to our country? Are we as a people becoming so insensitive to the unraveling of our moral fabric that we are content with parking our religious values at government door? Are we to be content with knowing that our elected representatives go to church each Sunday…whatever church it may be and not hold them accountable? Do we not have a duty/obligation be an active citizen…. to question and demand answers relevant to our concerns for a just and honest government? SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENT: AIRPORT ADVISORY BOARD. Mayor Pike stood tall tonight…when he thanked Councilman, Joe Bowcutt for accepting and becoming an Ex-Officio member of newly reconstituted Airport Advisory Board.  My friends, the internal manipulations of the past two years taking place at the New SG Airport in many ways could be describe as flying below the radar screen. What has taken place speaks to the issue raised at the beginning of this article…Transparency and Citizen Input and Oversight. Prior to the new airport being completed the city was involved in litigation with a contractor that was hushed up. The city never made public the terms of the settlement. Previous administration elected to litigate the claim which they declared to be unfounded …and which the contractor reportedly would never win…yet we know a settlement was reached and the contractor was awarded an amount of money not made public. We don’t know exactly how much or where they money came from to pay the rumored $100,000 pay off. We do know that during the last months of construction the former mayor addressed the city council in a Workshop Meeting and explained that FAA was making demands that required quick responses from the city. Reportedly the Airport Board was delaying or hampering city efforts to do so in a timely manner. The former mayor and City Manager concurred that it was best to do away with the Airport Board made up of local citizens. The former mayor asked the Council to disband the Airport Board and committed to asking for a reinstatement of the Airport Board as soon as construction was completed. Time passed and the former mayor and city manager reportedly concluded that it was better to keep the running of the airport in their hands and therefore the commitment to re-establish the Airport Board was never honored. During the last two years there have been many issues with Private FBO doing business at the new airport. Suffice it to say not everyone has been happy with operation decisions made by the city. I believe it is safe to say city has made concessions that may have resulted in lawsuits and further litigation. As far as we know litigation has been avoided. I have presented these details to you to show the importance of Citizen Oversight and the need to hold elected officials accountable. Mayor Pike is to be commended for honoring his stated commitment to Transparency and for his diligence and hard work in seeing to it that the Airport Advisory Board is back in service. Last Wednesday the Airport Board met for the first time and 6 or 7 members of the public were in attendance. Kudos to mayor and council for a job well done, thereby making Active Citizen Participation possible.       ED BACA