What will you do to increase opportunities for public participation at city council meetings? Unfortunately, the council appears to be going in the opposite direction by shutting down public input, especially at the start of city council meetings. (One council member even wanted to discontinue Zoom calls.) They’ve shaved the time allowed to a meager 15 minutes for people to speak for two minutes during early oral communication. It used to be that anyone who wanted to speak early could come up to the podium. Now you have to take a number and if you’re not lucky enough to snag one early, you have to wait until the end of the meeting. This is hard on folks who don’t own a car, people with children, students, and seniors who can’t see to drive at night. To make matters worse, the buses have stopped running late at night and some of us live too far from city hall. (I live in North Arcata.) What are you willing to do to increase public engagement so that everyone who wants to has a chance to be heard, and to participate in the governance of our community?

— Lisa

Responses

Blase Bonpane

Lisa, 

This is some of the scariest stuff on earth right now. The US used to be a beacon of democracy despite all its failings and Arcata used to be a beacon of greater democracy with its inclusion of economic democracy and bioregionalism. Now Arcata is following the US away from democracy in favor of  plutocracy and oligarchy. 

If I am elected I will insist on opening the doors to all voices and rolling out the locally made welcome mats to all who want to be heard by allowing space for in-person and zoom participation and allowing space for people’s emails to be considered in the meetings as well. We can not have meetings go on forever, so some triage and grouping and creative organization must be incorporated but the shutting down of zoom and no responses is just ice cold and backward.

We have had an increase in wealthier people and landlords on the council who are prioritizing bigger business over people and leading this regression from the ecumenical values and deep democracy that make Arcata unique, cute, and edgy. That creates the draw for good tourism and our local economy. 

Welcome everyone. Deny nothing. Vote Bonpane

 

 

 

 

Genevieve Serna

Hi Lisa, I absolutely respect people’s right to participate in public meetings and would be open to work shopping creative solutions to make it easier. First and foremost I will stand by the continuation of people’s ability to participate on Zoom. This is likely the easiest way for busy folks to have their voice heard. I would also stand by making the opening public comment period longer. A creative solution that I would be open to is having regular listening sessions on weekends where two alternating council members were made available to discuss city business with the public. This may make it easier for those who are regularly busy on weeknights to engage directly with their elected officials. I am so greatly in support of finding means to continue and expand bus service so those who don’t drive can make it city meetings efficiently. I would also encourage people not to forget that they can email council members directly about agenda items or city business. The Brown Act limits the councils ability to make decisions on items not on the agenda and only allows for brief discussion of topics that are brought up. However council members may individually have more time to have a thoughtful response or conversation with you via email. It may also give them time to request more information from city staff about the topics you’re discussing. Whenever I’ve emailed council or the board of supervisors I’ve gotten regular responses on the issues I’m addressing. You can also explicitly ask that your email be added to the following meetings minutes for written public comment (I’ve done this as well in the past). Thank you for your question. www.SernaForArcata.com

 

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