The second of 2 Blacksburg Town Council Forums was held on 10/26/09. I think it was a major success. Tough questions were asked and answered. A number of rebuttals occured. You can go to the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County webpage for Candidate Forums and find the Voter Guides in the original version printed prior to the forums, as well as the extended versions of the Voter Guides that include the written responses of questions presented by citizens at the forums (these include those questions that were asked and those that were not asked). Links to the videos, where you can see the forums for yourself, are also included.
I found both the videos and the written responses to be informative individually, yet together I got a much better idea of how the candidates respond to issues that must be dealt with immediately (the forum questions) and how they respond to issues when they are given time to study the issue and do some research. Probably 90% of all the issues elected officials deal with fit into that later category of allowing time for the official to study the issue before expressing an opinion or casting a vote.
There is one question that I would have asked these candidates, if I had been a Blacksburg resident. That question would have been:
Being involved with the forums caused me to start doing a little bit of looking and asking myself questions. What I found was that most of the real ‘meat’ of what the Blacksburg Town Council does occurs during the work sessions. By the time the Town Council meeting comes around, the Town Council members have already done all of the background work and discussion and are simply ready to vote.
It is during those work sessions that the public has an opportunity to see how Town Council members are addressing the issues, how they think, what they perceive to be the important features of the issue. This is where many of the citizen concerns are raised and discussed. In short, this is the information that voters need in order to effectively evaluate the performance of their elected officials.
These work sessions are no easier for the public to attend than the council meetings, in fact, because of the time of day, they are often more difficult for people to attend.
In contrast, Christiansburg Town Council does not use work sessions and much of the thought processing and values of the officials comes through in the discussion at Town Council. (You can see examples of this on the videos of those meetings posted on myvaresources.com.) Granted, Christiansburg has not had the long history of having made those meetings accessible in video format. In fact, they still do not do it. Some aggravating old lady does it for them:) But, in the absence of unpublished work sessions, the Christiansburg Town Council allows decision-making to be more open to the public than the system Blacksburg uses. (You better believe that aggravating old lady would be in there recording work sessions for Christiansburg if they were used and posting them online!)
In my opinion, it would be a service to the citizens of Blacksburg, and a good example of open government, if the Blacksburg Town Council would record and make public those work sessions. Minutes do not always provide the full picture and should not be relied upon to provide more than a summary of what occurred.
I wonder if any of the candidates have considered this question, and if they have, would they support it or be against it. Maybe elected officials will discuss it in a work session:)
Carol Lindstrom
October 28, 2009 at 11:40 am
From original Depotdazed:
Carol Lindstrom replies:
http://lwvmcva.org/CandidateForums/Guides_Videos.html Links to all such documents are on that page. Only the first Bburg question list & the School Board have the extended questions and answers. There isn’t time before election to get the 2nd Bburg responses. The list of those questions from the 2nd forum should be available later today. Sorry, I couldn’t get them in to the computer at the forum so I’m having to juggle it in with all other work.
Carol Lindstrom
October 28, 2009 at 11:39 am
From original Depotdazed
Anonymous Reader says:
Summary
Where is a summary of the forum questions and responses, without having to view the entire tape? Time and technical constraints.
Carol Lindstrom
October 28, 2009 at 11:39 am
From original Depotdazed:
Carol Lindstrom replies:
Thank you very much for most of your comments….My only exception is that, if I have nightmares because of this visual of the C’burg TC in skirts, I will remember the source:)
Carol Lindstrom
October 28, 2009 at 11:39 am
From original Depotdazed:
Mother says:
Always behave as if mother is in the room. Lisa, so what if people behave differently when a camera is on or others are watching? That is integrity, acting the same with or without an audience. If people cannot articulate the same with or without a camera, are they honest and do we want such people representing us? You’ve only shown that politicians are two-faced with this argument. One discussion for when no one but “my buddies” can hear me, another for public consumption. Now when it comes to the other ‘burg, this blog just demonstrates how much “public business” occurs between real meetings and which is probably skirting the law (to the degree all Christiansburg Council people should have to wear skirts). It is not “thought process” – it is deliberate circumvention of citizens right to know what business is happening and how it is being dealt with on our behalf. If these people don’t have enough integrity to mean what they say then it is time to seek others who have the personal courage it takes, even if it means you can’t please everyone.
Carol Lindstrom
October 28, 2009 at 11:38 am
From original Depotdazed:
Carol Lindstrom replies:
Not only is it the “tech” city, there are a lot of students for whom having an internship could make a difference in whether or not they can stay in school!
Carol Lindstrom
October 28, 2009 at 11:38 am
From original Depotdazed:
Anonymous Reader says:
Sorry
Blacksburg is the “tech” city and should be able to staff covering when the real “meat” is happening. The town manager knows most people don’t have the time to attend these meetings, plus the following council meetings. It is not open government until this is made a priority, allowing those who cannot attend due to health, age, or work to really follow all the discussions in public meetings. Otherwise the government is banking on your ignorance and their ability to change the message depending on who they are talking to. It is shameful that in this day and age this won’t be funded. There is enough slush funding in the budget – state or local – to handle this. People need to make a stand and insist this is all public regardless of when meetings are held.
Carol Lindstrom
October 28, 2009 at 11:37 am
From original Depotdazed:
Carol Lindstrom replies:
And could you imagine the savings if the County, Radford, Blacksburg, and Christiansburg figured out a way to work together to provide these types of services? Blacksburg staff does an excellent job of providing what it does. I wholeheartedly agree that people behave differently when the camera is on them. But, that is not necessarily a bad thing. It certainly would not have to be as fancy a setup as what is used for Town Council Meetings. In fact, simple audio recordings would be a great place to start. All too often, I have heard citizens rant about the way a decision went. What they missed was the opportunity to see how that decision was MADE! The differences between the two jurisdictions are not a valid grounds for comparison because of the absence of work sessions in Christiansburg. A lot of the things that happen during work sessions in Blacksburg, happen during the actual town council meetings for Christiansburg. I know that what first raised my eyebrows was the fact that Blacksburg TC members almost always vote unanimously. I had to search for hours to find evidence of any oppositional votes. According to people who have attended work sessions, council meets and essentially negotiates everything until they reach agreement. Then it is voted on in Council Meeting. In Christiansburg, all of those kinds of discussions seem to happen either during the Meeting or through email correspondence and phone calls between members before the meeting. Christiansburg frequently has split decisions and, on occasion, a tie-breaker requiring the Mayor’s vote also occurs. I would certainly agree that Blacksburg can’t just snap their fingers and make work session recordings appear, however, they could accomplish it if citizens wanted it. A bit more equipment, a bit more staff…or, as I alluded to earlier, working in concert to form a combined staff pool and resources with other jurisdictions. Of course, they could always just stop the work sessions and have all of that information and discussion during the town council meetings:) Open government ‘ain’t cheap’, but in the long run can save a lot of controversy and serve to better educate the public.
Carol Lindstrom
October 28, 2009 at 11:36 am
From original Depotdazed:
Lisa says:
Carol, I can speak from experience about this. I remember when a current council member ran for office, he wanted to record work sessions. Here is the problem with that: First – resources. In Blacksburg, there are three staff members that record the Council and Planning Commission meetings. They rotate each meeting since it only takes two staff to do a meeting. The staff that does the meetings are the WTOB station manager, the communications specialist (graphic design, social media, etc) and a part time production assistant. That is it. If work sessions were to be recorded, then staff would not be able to provide other services. What people don’t realize is the time and effort put in to recording a Town Council meeting. It takes prep work from the presentations, to the supers for names, to make sure everything is loaded, to last minute changes, and more. Staff does not just show up at 7:30 on Tuesdays and leave when the meeting is over. We prep as early as the Friday before the meeting and work on meeting materials until the Wednesday after. We put a lot of time and effort to make a quality presentation for everyone to see online and on TV. Second – the meetings would have to move from the Blacksburg Motor Company to the Council Chambers. That is not a big deal, but it is the one location where a quality recording can be made of the meetings. It would make it difficult to distingush on air the difference between a work session and a regular meeting. Third – and I know you will say “so what” but when on camera, people say things and act differently. It would actually affect the discussion. Carol, I think it would be a great idea to do a post on the differences in the two councils when it comes to format, etc. Like Ron votes, Richard doesn’t. BBurg does not have people sign up before to speak. Does Cburg?