Opinion: City Council Didn't Put It's Best Foot Forward
Tuesday night's city council meeting left many in attendance feeling frustrated and unheard. There are measures the Council can take right now that will prevent a minor dust-up from becoming a storm.
by Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Tuesday night’s Fredericksburg City Council meeting could hardly match recent School Board meetings in Spotsylvania County for over-the-top juvenile theatrics. But during discussion over amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) that passed 7-0, one could see the kindling that might spark a public backlash.
Unless this Board gets its act together, and soon, the city’s usually genteel council meetings could become more combative and lay the groundwork for a voters’ revolt against the new mayor and council members.
Before anyone reaches for the panic button, however, let’s take a step back and look at the real problem. It’s as simple as c-o-m-m-u-n-i-c-a-t-i-o-n.
Most everywhere one looked on Tuesday, the signs of poor communication abounded. Starting with the words of the council members themselves.
Bureaucratic Language
Technical language is a necessity. Planners, when writing for other planners, will use highly-specialized terms, abbreviations, and make assumptions about each that make sense to those in-the-know. This type of writing allows people who are familiar with the ins and outs of planning to quickly understand what is happening and what the outcomes will be.
Such shorthand isn’t limited to planners. The military is notorious for its overuse of acronyms. Academics, of course, have a language all their own. And then there are government bureaucrats and lawyers, who swear their language is precise (then find out otherwise and give journalists lots of write about.)
But when communicating outside of specialized circles, you can’t expect people to understand what you’re talking about.
This is especially true with something as complicated as the UDO amendments, and the long-term impact of their approval.
Don’t take my words for it. Ask the newest members of council.
Jannan Holmes said in her comments before the vote was taken - “I have read this proposal many times. It is confusing language.” That was followed by this:
And in the future, I would ask people if there is something before Council that is confusing like this, please reach out, because I think we could explain things in a clearer fashion.
In a similar tone, Will Mackintosh, another new member of council, said: “I think the language of density and units is technical language … it’s a professional technical language … used by zoning administrators to establish regulations.”
He went on:
…we get ourselves wrapped around the axle when we talk about density and talk about units because what we’re really talking about is people, right?
Clearly - the language was not easy for the newest members of council to understand. Perhaps that lack of clarity explained the almost 2 hours of comments from citizens upset about what they fear these changes are going to mean to the city of Fredericksburg.
It’s not my place in this column to call balls and strikes on who’s right and who’s wrong in the argument. I’m not a planning expert, and I confess to struggling as well with reading the language that was brought before council.
But when the newest members of council themselves confess that the language is difficult to get one’s head around, and when a substantial body of citizens rise to protest the ordinance, calling for a pause before reviewing it, is there any real harm in tabling the motion for two weeks, or four weeks, and asking the planner to team with people who specialize in mass communications to go back and explain in plain English what the amendments means and how they will impact the city?
In my time covering the city, it’s not the first that I’ve struggled with the language that comes out of this government. As opinion editor at the Free Lance-Star, I wrote a fairly positive review of the city’s strategic plan. However, the plan itself took some serious work to understand.
It took several conversations with city officials to better understand the terminology that was used, because it too often wasn’t defined. I then had to read and re-read the document multiple times to make sense of the process and how to interpret what the document was saying, because the syntax was poor not always clear and the descriptive flow at times confusing.
To borrow Mackintosh’s phrase, I got “wrapped around the axle” of the technical language. But when documents aren’t written to be easily understood, people have no option but to wrap themselves around said axle and figure out the syntactical mess that is technical writing.
A tip from someone who’s spent a life in writing. If a person says they don’t understand something, take them seriously. Chances are a lot of other folks are struggling with the language, too.
Recommendation to Council: Yes, make the technical documents available. But when making a pitch to the citizens of the city who are not experts in your field, take the time to also put together a plain English presentation that can help them understand what is happening.
Actively Listening
Perhaps the most surprising statement of the night came from the new mayor.
Prior to the vote, clearly caught off guard by the outpouring of protest from the people in the room, Kerry Devine made the following observation.
[I] am surprised that people are surprised that we are looking at redevelopment…. And that’s really what we’re looking at because we have as a council … talked about that openly publicly in meetings, in workshops, in all sorts of ways for at least a decade. … That’s not news.
No, that redevelopment has been a hot topic for a decade is not news. But the particulars for how the council plans to move forward are news. And Council should have been aware that these kinds of changes are going to draw strong reactions. Devine, after all, was on Council last year during the very heated discussions about accessory dwelling units.
That experience should have been a warning to her and to Council that whatever proposals are put forward are going to attract attention from people in the community. And their emotions are going to be high.
Former mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw - like every politician - had her strengths and weaknesses. But without doubt one of her very great strengths was her ability to really hear criticism honestly, to make the people feel heard, and not downplay the feelings of those bringing their ideas forward.
Devine seems to have missed that message. Instead, she used Greenlaw’s words to defend her shock at people’s pushback.
“The former mayor’s parting words were growth is coming, and we need to be prepared for it,” she said.
Yes - growth is coming, but Devine’s comments suggest that because growth is coming, Council has a greenlight to do whatever it wants, so long as staff works hard to produce their plans. Effectively telling people to “get over it” is not a way to come across as someone who genuinely wants to hear dissent. Indeed, multiple people in attendance Tuesday night have told they Advance they felt “lectured to” by those on the dais.
Whether that was the mayor’s - and others’ - intent or not is beside the point.
Most people want just one thing. To feel heard. And if they are, they can accept defeat on most any issue better than if they feel their concerns are being ignored.
Again, remember Spotsylvania. True, the county was caught up in a national hysteria over “parents’ rights” and book burning. But it’s also true that several conservative-leaning parents had had their concerns about these books summarily dismissed by administration.
How different would things have turned out in Spotsylvania if the administration had taken the time to really hear these people’s arguments? Perhaps not at all. But more likely, the flair-ups and anger would have been mitigated at least some.
Recommendation to Council: Listen more.
Communication
Devine’s shock at how people carried themselves Tuesday night was made worse by implying that people simply weren’t paying attention. Noting that the issue had come before planning and Council previously, the vibe Council gave off was one of - “We’ve given you plenty of chances to respond - why now?”
The Council, however, is not communicating with the public as well as it believes it is.
Tuesday night, a gap emerged between the city’s leadership and its citizens. Now’s the time to take action and close it.
Yes, council meetings are televised, and recorded. Yes, there’s lots of information on the website. And yes, Council members’ phone numbers are easily found.
This is all to the good.
But Council members must understand that people have very busy lives. Significant numbers of citizens commute long distances for work.
Further, a casual survey of those who attend the meetings reflects how little penetration Council communications actually have.
The city’s rich ethnic diversity, and its socio-economic diversity, are not readily apparent in public meetings. There are lots of possible explanations for why this is the case. But communications is surely one of the keys.
How to change that and get more people involved?
How about partnering with Community Attributes Inc to conduct an Equity Index study of Fredericksburg?
According to the city of Tacoma:
The Equity Index is a data-driven tool to see where your projects, policies, programs or services can have the largest impact on addressing inequity and where investment can provide the biggest improvement in factors that impact life outcomes.
Inequity in Fredericksburg is a serious problem, as anyone who has watched and followed the redevelopment debates here, knows. And those most harmed by inequity are not well-represented at Council meetings.
Gaining a clearer understanding of where equity gaps exist would empower the Council to begin to target its communications toward those spots to ensure that those people’s voices are heard.
Another trick to improve communication is simple shoe leather.
For all the gadgetry and wizardry at our fingertips, we tend to forget that the internet is a tool for blasting stuff into the ether. It makes no guarantee that people 1) Find it, 2) Use it, or 3) Understand it.
When pushing major changes like the UDO amendments, instead of leaning on the internet and council and planning meetings - which can drone on for hours; hours many hardworking families don’t have - take your show on the road. There are a number of strong neighborhood associations. Go there, hold meetings focused on explaining the plan, and then really hearing what people have to say.
Invite these people into the planning process. Give them skin in the game, as investment bankers like to say. If you can explain what is happening so the Everyday Joe and Jane understand it, then you’re ready to push the idea forward.
Get Ahead of the Storm
Covering the disaster that has been Spotsylvania County for several years now, we appreciate how little misunderstandings and being made to feel left out can lead to significant consequences at the election box. These little slights can also lead to storms of debates that literally tear communities apart.
Fredericksburg is not to that point. In fact, I’d argue the city isn’t in hailing distance of that point.
But Tuesday night, a gap emerged between the city’s leadership and its citizens. Now’s the time to take action and close it.
It won’t take much. A little more time. A little more attention to what people are saying. And a little more empathy with people’s frustrations.
It’s a good way to ensure that the dysfunction that engulfed Spotsylvania doesn’t creep into Fredericksburg.
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Great job, thanks for the detailed write up!