A fellow community member sent a great email to members of a  neighborhood association list I subscribe to. In it she opined that more residents must get involved in their communities in order for change to occur. I responded to her with my theory as to why more people don’t get involved. Of course my theory  is only based on my own experience. I recognize your mileage may vary..

Dear Brenda,

In my opinion it all starts at the top. We [Sacramentans] are in need of a leader who is capable of engaging people and bringing them together for THE COMMON GOOD. To do that, community leaders (especially those holding the purse strings, or in positions of influence) must take the time to invite people to participate, truly listen to them, empathize, prioritize, and ACT accordingly to address their issues.

When residents feel their voice matters, they spread the word, and they act as surrogates and tell their friends and family and co-workers ..and congregations.  Soon more people get involved. This inclusive culture inevitably leads to COOPERATION. It’s ALL about cooperation. Once people are cooperating for the common good, community pride will prevail. And DEMAND for accountability will follow.

Why don’t more people get involved? I know why. We currently have a culture that actually discourages resident involvement. See what happened when residents came out and implored the city council not to brown the fire stations out, and the council forged ahead and did it anyway? That sent a direct message to residents from the council: Thanks for your participation, but no thanks.

That is the kind of dismissive, cold community climate Heather Fargo’s “consensus-driven” leadership style has given way to.

It all starts at the top and trickles down, even into the neighborhood associations and special interest groups. I have seen it firsthand. In fact, every community meeting I’ve attended in Natomas so far has been nothing but an information dump whereby 90% of the meeting is devoted to one or a few people talking, and then 10% devoted to Q&A where residents can express themselves. And of course there is never enough time to field everyone’s questions. I’ve walked away from these meetings wondering why I even wasted my time.

The recent crime meeting is a good example of this. There was a long information dump (which essentially just regurgitated what had been reported in the news), and then a short and hurried Q&A session. My question never even got answered. No time. Gotta go. Sorry folks. In my opinion another hour should have been added for resident discussion. Had officials elected not to stay for the extended hour or two, fine, let them go home. Who wants them moderating a community discussion anyways? Residents need to feel confident they can express their opinions without being ridiculed, intimidated, or dismissed. EVERYONE’S opinion and input is important. No time to hear them? MAKE TIME.

Strong, spirited, civil debate (or “bitching” as some of my fellow residents call it) between stakeholders is HEALTHY. It is liberating and empowering for a person to be able to speak his or her mind openly, let alone discover others share one’s frustrations and fears and concerns… or vision!

If you are parent with multiple kids, you know the power of a good family sit-down where everyone gets to state their grievances in an unfiltered manner. What happens? It may get emotional, and sometimes even accusatory, but in the end accords are reached and action items are established and everyone walks away with a renewed sense of purpose. At least that is how it happens in my home (it wasn’t always like this; my wife and I had to learn these skills from other successful parents).

I attended KJ’s Natomas Town Hall meeting in hopes of experiencing an open forum, where folks felt good about expressing their opinions to someone who was really interested in hearing them. But nope. Same soup warmed over.  Three people still had their hands up when KJ said: sorry, no time for any more questions. This after only a mere 10 minutes on Q&A. You know what was so paradoxical about that meeting? It was supposed to be about the community, but the majority of it was spent on the candidate. I was sitting sitting there thinking: “Ok why am I taking precious time away from my family and work to be here if you don’t have time to field my question again?”

Suffice to say, I left both meetings frustrated and decidedly averse to to the idea of attending any future meetings. I know I wasn’t alone.

Residents need a forum to express themselves. And whomever facilitates (and I use the word FACILITATE, not MODERATE) needs to ensure everyone is heard and more importantly that they are not rushed, dismissed, or put down. These are basic ground rules of meeting facilitation that have been practiced in the business world since time memorial.

I have been in a few leadership positions in my 15+ year business career. I have been very fortunate to report to and learn from some stalwart CEO’s, VP’s and so forth. I learned the difference between supervising and leading very early on.  I follow a very simple maxim when it comes to meetings: No hand left behind.

I’ll get off my soapbox now, but I think it bears repeating: More people don’t get involved because they think no one cares about their opinion. They don’t attend meetings because they think the meetings will be a waste of their time. They don’t express their opinion because they fear someone will dismiss them, rush them, ridicule them, or discount the severity of the issue.

Until we get some leaders in place who are truly empathetic and not only willing to take the TIME to hear residents, but actually INTERESTED in what they have to say (not to mention ensuring their voices are not being drowned out by pulpit bullies, or–God forbid–time constraints), you can bet there will be more of the same: a lot of grumbling, but little participation.

Heather Fargo laughs when she hears the word leadership because she simply does not have the skills to be an effective leader and engage the community in a cooperative manner for the common good. Nor does Ray Tretheway. Nor do most of the members of our local government. And that’s not a theory, that’s a fact.

Joe