Somewhere out there, a city council meeting is happening. And you're not watching it. But I am. Each week, I bring you the highlights, lowlights, and weirdlights from places you don't live.
There is a lot of news to keep up with these days and it would be nice if someone explained what’s really important. Well, you’re in luck: there is a new episode of the “Best Thing, Worst Thing” project! For an explanation, check out the page here. Basically, you will be transported to a city or town where you (probably) have never been. You will hear from the locals about the things they like and the things they cannot stand.
So pack up your skis and put some hot chocolate in a thermos. Then head over to the City Council Chronicles podcast to download the latest episode. Or you can play it below.
Episode 5: Vail, Colorado
Photo source: Town of Vail
Vail is about 100 miles west of Denver in Eagle County, Colorado. Most people know Vail as home to the most popular ski resort in the country. But there is actually a town of 5,300 people who work at, ski on, or vacation near the resort. The town is fairly new–only 51 years old. It is a fantastic place for people who love the outdoors. But it is fairly remote in the Rocky Mountains. And it is increasingly adversarial for people who work there to also live nearby. In this episode, we hear from a journalist, an events manager, a school board member, a house cleaner, and a rabbi.
It’s our first dip into the waters of Alberta and boy, what a fun time it was! I talked to Bev Esslinger, a councilor in Edmonton. We addressed accusations that the Edmonton council meetings are a “man cave,” and also discussed the seemingly-unrelated subjects of prayer and city hall security.
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Q: Something caught my eye on the CBC. This is a story from January:
Do you agree with this characterization of your city council meetings as an “upscale man cave?”
A: I wouldn’t call it a man cave. The last time, we didn’t have that many women running for council. We’ve been really working on that in Edmonton to improve that. We’ve changed some of our policies to be more family friendly–it’s good for everyone if meetings end at 5:30 rather than going into the evening after a full day of debate. No one’s at their best when the meeting goes past that time.
Q: Something that was big at your city council was the 2015 Supreme Court decision saying that prayer at government meetings was not allowed. You didn’t seem to like this, but looking back at almost two and a half years without prayer, is it still a disappointment?
A: Absolutely. We used to start our meeting with a prayer from a different interfaith group each time. It was always a very nice part of the day. I thought it reflected the diversity we have.
Q: City council meetings are a business meeting, ceremony, and public forum rolled into one. Did it help you do your job to have someone give a prayer right before you heard about things like zoning?
A: It was a moment of pause to reflect on our community’s diversity. It was a moment where people got to wish us their best. Hey, we can all use more prayer!
Q: I’ll give that an amen. But one of the suggestions to replace the prayer was to have a “moment of reflection” when citizens would say what it meant to them to be an Edmontonian through a poem or a song. You were against it. Why?
A: It went from a prayer to something that could be very broad. I didn’t think it was the same thing at all.
Edmonton, AB Councilor Bev Esslinger
Q: Perhaps you haven’t heard a poem about Edmonton that truly blew your socks off. May I read my poem?
A: Why not!
Q: Okay:
Saskatchewan River–
Cold waters as sharp
As Gretzky’s skates.
Light rail
Now going to Century Park.
What’s that?
That’s the Royal Alberta Museum.
History!…Mmm so thirsty;
Better go to the waterpark
At the West Edmonton Mall.
Splash
Into Alberta!
When I visit Edmonton, can I read that at a council meeting?
A: No.
Q: …Okay, let’s change the subject. On September 22, 2015, a group of cab drivers protested during a meeting when you were deciding whether to allow Uber in Edmonton. Have you ever been concerned about your safety at a council meeting?
A: Not really. It’s disruptive–you can’t conduct a meeting. We don’t try to get into it with people. In this case, this large a group of people reacting…you can’t continue your meeting.
Q: You decided to beef up your security with metal detectors and a glass wall. Wouldn’t it be cheaper if the councilors carried guns?
A: That would not be Canadian.
Follow Councilor Bev Esslinger on Twitter: @bevesslinger
Folks, the Constitution says that every year the nation needs an update on the state of our city council meetings. I don’t like it any more than you do, but yesterday I stood before a joint session of Congress and did my duty. (Although they seemed a little distracted–was anything else going on?)
If you didn’t catch it on CNN, FOX, or the Lifetime channel, my State of the City Council Meetings address is available on iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM and right here:
Among the highlights, in the past 11 months we have done:
89 city council meeting reviews
37 interviews
2 dramatic readings
6 geese-a-laying
1 superhero play based on a councilmember’s life
Check out the episode to hear excerpts from some of the best stuff!
(And if you want to skip ahead to the fun radio play we did, here it is:)
You may recognize Lan Diep from his city council swearing-in ceremony during which he held a replica Captain America shield:
It was an inspiring moment. But let’s keep our eyes on the prize: he’s a freshman council member in San José (yes, it’s spelled with the accent mark) who is new to the city council meeting game. That’s why I asked him about his “jitters,” his boisterous first meeting, and who his amigas are on the council.
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Q: Before your first meeting, you tweeted this:
I'll sit on the dais for the first time in about 30 minutes and boy, I gots the jitters. You got this, Lân… you got this!
A: You campaign for this thing and until you actually get up there, it’s this abstract idea. You can’t anticipate what the job will be like until you’re actually there. There has been a bit of an awakening–not good or bad. Just different.
Q: Is there some glaring disconnect between us watching you on the city council meetings and what you experience?
A: What I didn’t anticipate is that this would be a lifestyle. You can go to an event and see your mayor or your council member get on stage, say some nice words, and shake people’s hands, then leave. And you think, “wouldn’t it be great to have my name called out to be on that stage!” What you don’t realize is you’re still at that event, but the council member probably has three or four or five more events that day. The physical toll of that was a surprise to me.
Q: Your first council meeting was a doozy. You had a full house of mostly Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans and the topic was whether San José would fly the flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (communist Vietnam) or the Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag. A hundred people came up and talked emotionally about what the communist flag meant to them. Did it surprise you to have that be so controversial?
A: Um, no. San José is home to the most Vietnamese people in any one city outside of Vietnam. Whenever they can, they do things like get their city government to oppose flying the Red Flag as a way to say to the government in Vietnam, “we reject your rule.”
Q: Is there someone on the city council you consider a best friend?
A: I have two people I feel close to. One is Council Member Dev Davis, who I jokingly call my “work wife.” [We] go around to events together. The other person I’m close to is Council Member Sylvia Arenas, who I’ve jokingly called my “best friend at work.” We made a video together reviewing the crab sandwich at McDonald’s that’s being offered for a limited time in San José!
Q: Lan, can you tell the listeners what you put in front of you on the dais during the council meetings?
A: [Laughs] I have a little Captain America Funko POP! figurine that I put in front of my computer monitor so when I’m speaking, he’s hanging out with me. I’m owning the Captain America thing that I unintentionally thrust upon myself. It was a surprise to me that a lot of people tweeted at me saying that I was cool or wished I was their council member. Some people called me an embarrassment. But what was really touching and unexpected were the people who said I presented to them some symbol of hope–I reminded them to look past party lines.
Follow Councilmember Lan Diep on Twitter at: @LTDiep
Scott Neal is a fun guy to talk to. Not only has he been the city manager of multiple cities around the Midwest, but he’s a bit of a YouTube star for his “On the Job” video series. We talked about what he learned from British city councils and how public commenters affect how he thinks about the city.
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Q: I want to start 4,000 miles away from Edina in England. You were there for ten days in 2005 and you met a queen’s dozen of local councilors. Did you learn anything about city council meetings over there–other than, obviously, their meetings are on the opposite side of the dais?
A: It was a lot of fun. We learned that most of the cities we dropped in on had a huge number of council members compared to the U.S.
Q: What number are we talking?
A: Two dozen, sometimes more. They were amazed that we could get work done with five council members. They had in their mind a link between the number of elected officials and the effectiveness of the organization.
Q: Have you ever gotten sad when a city council member retires or leaves?
A: I’ve had that a number of times over my career. The one that comes to mind most recently is a council member in Edina named Ann Swenson. She was part of the council that hired me. She was clear in what she wanted, which made her an easy person to work for.
Q: At her last council meeting, she said that you put your pen in the air when you want to speak, so she gave you a pen that lights up! Do you use that sparkle pen in meetings?
A: I don’t use it in council meetings. I do use it around my office, yeah!
Edina, MN City Manager Scott Neal
Q: In Edina, you’ve had a couple of council meetings that stretched on for petty long because you had a bunch of public commenters. You sent out this tweet at a meeting:
Is that a frequent occurrence?
A: No! I started in this line of work prior to city councils having their meetings shown on local access. I remember when we were making those decisions, city officials worried about that very thing happening: what if we’re having a public hearing and somebody watches it on TV and they decide to just come down and join in? I used to think that was unnecessary to worry about. [This] was the first time in my career it’s ever happened! I’m glad he put on his pants and came here–
Q: Wait, you assume they’re not wearing pants at home?!
A: It’s their privilege. It’s a free country.
Q: Amen to that. There was one contentious public comment back in October. A black man was recorded on video being handled roughly by an Edina police officer. At the next council meeting, for three hours people came up to the podium and they were outraged. When that many concerned people show up, do you think that means the city has failed?
A: I do not. Not necessarily. Doesn’t mean it [hasn’t]. I have had in my career a couple of council meetings that reached that level of anger. They haven’t come around very often, but it certainly makes you sit up and take notice.
This is exciting: Kelly Elliott is the first Canadian councilor on the podcast! You probably know her as the co-founder of “I Love Thorndale” and a player in the “Girls With Balls” hockey league. But did you know she was embroiled in a dust-up over so-called illegal council meetings?! (Also, Thames Centre council meetings need more viewers, stat!)
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Q: There’s something we’ve gotta talk about: Thames Centre is a municipality. Here in the U.S., “municipality” usually means city or town. In a few states, they’ve got boroughs or townships, but those states are weird and frankly they should be kicked out of this country. What is the “Municipality of Thames Centre?”
A: The municipality was actually two townships that amalgamated in 2001. Our municipality is mostly rural areas. We have two villages and a handful of little hamlets.
Q: What would it take for you to become a city?
A: I don’t know what the full step is!
Q: Well, I called up my boys at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs for Ontario. It turns out, municipalities can decide what to call themselves. If you wanted to start being the “City of Thames Centre,” you just have to change your stationery and business cards!
A: We’re nice rural country folk. We don’t want to be known as “city!”
Q: I noticed that the mayor wears a very ornate necklace. What is that thing and what kind of powers does it give him?
The mayoral necklace
A: It doesn’t give him much more powers. The mayor has exactly the same weight of vote as anyone else on council. He just leads the meeting and keeps everyone in line.
Q: In October 2016, the deputy mayor said that some councilors were holding “illegal meetings.” Apparently, one day after a council meeting, Councilor Alison Warwick, Councilor Jennifer Coghlin, and you were sitting in the chamber talking about your son who was in the hospital for a head injury. Is that where this misunderstanding came from?
Thames Centre, ON Councilor Kelly Elliott
A: That’s right. Having three of us together is quorum. So without a clerk, that would make it an illegal meeting IF we were discussing or furthering the business of the municipality. Of course, we weren’t doing that. But the deputy mayor had thought we were possibly discussing municipal issues.
Q: Did he come over and ask what you were talking about?
A: Probably a great thing would’ve been to come chat with us and he would’ve seen what we were discussing! But we just had a meeting on Monday–everyone was getting along.
Q: Do people show up at the council meetings to give you a hard time?
A: I wish we had more people like that! Our gallery is pretty bare for the majority of meetings. Not many people come just to watch us.
Q: So you would be okay with people showing up to criticize you because that means at least they’re showing up?
A: At least they’re coming, at least they’re caring what we’re talking about. When we see empty galleries, it makes you feel like you’re not doing anything important.
Q: Well, this is Canada, so you’re not doing anything important–
A: Oh, that’s rough.
Q: I’m kidding! I might need to be a refugee there in a couple of months….
For two decades, Lee Feldman has been a city manager all around the Florida coast. Currently he is the big cheese in Fort Lauderdale, which has its share of commission meeting drama. We talked about Florida’s causal meeting attire and what council members may really be doing when they’re not looking at public commenters.
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Q: You are the city manager of Fort Lauderdale. So, sir, my first question is: how many wet t-shirt contests have you judged?
A: None. Actually, Spring Break–as you may think of–has long gone from Fort Lauderdale. Back in the ’80s, the city fathers felt that Spring Break had gotten a little out of control. They wanted to see the beach evolve to something different, so Spring Break ultimately moved away.
Q: Can you think of anything you’ve done as Fort Lauderdale’s city manager that you think no other city manager in the country might have done?
A: Well, I’ll tell you one. In Florida when you have a quasi-judicial item, you have to be sworn in to give testimony. Our previous process gave you an orange sticker to indicate you were sworn in. I encouraged the clerk to replace that sticker with a sticker that says “I Love Fort Lauderdale.” I’m not sure anybody else in the country has done that.
Q: [Laughs] Yeah, I wouldn’t expect Reno to have stickers that say “I Love Fort Lauderdale!” I noticed in your city commission meetings that some public commenters wear t-shirts, shorts, and baseball caps. Do you find that a little too casual?
A: Over the last 30 years, I’ve seen a general relaxation of meetings. You’ve probably seen some council members that wear t-shirts and ball caps and shorts–
Q: Not yet!
A: You’ll probably find a few, especially in the retirement-oriented communities.
Fort Lauderdale, FL City Manager Lee Feldman
Q: When you were in Palm Bay, there was a contentious city council meeting over the city’s contract with firefighters. Some of them stood up and said, you don’t care about us. Or, cut your pay. What do you want to say to them?
A: We value the work and effort of every employee. Everybody contributes differently. I remember around that time, these anonymous blogs started showing up and somebody blogged that I had gotten a huge raise, which was not the truth. I got a call from my mom–she was yelling at me about “how dare you take a raise when you’re telling others that they need to have changes?”
Q: Some people express concern in public comment that the Fort Lauderdale commissioners aren’t listening to people. I’ve got to say, from watching a few meetings, that seems largely correct.
A: I think our commissioners get a bad rap…we have electronic agendas now. All of our commissioners and myself use our iPads. As people are speaking and referencing things, we will be looking down at the iPad to see what they are talking about.
Q: How can public commenters get your attention and most effectively make their case?
A: The best way to make a case is to know the issue, be able to state the facts, and it’s okay to even get emotional. I’ve seen speakers tear up because the item means so much to them. But the most effective way is to remain civil.
It’s a tumultuous time, so it is important to get involved locally. We at the Chronicles are doing our part with the “Best Thing, Worst Thing” project! For an explanation, check out the page here. If you like storytelling and municipal lore, I think you will enjoy hearing residents wrestle with the good and challenging parts of their city at the same time.
So get comfortable, imagine you’ve been teleported to the Midwest, and head over to the City Council Chronicles podcast to download the latest episode. Or you can play it below.
Episode 4: Raymore, Missouri
Photo source: City of Raymore
Raymore is 25 miles south of Kansas City in Cass County, Missouri. The population is 20,000. It is largely a bedroom community for people working in the big city or in nearby Kansas. For a long time, Raymore was stagnant–hovering around 500 residents. But starting in the ’70s, the city grew up fast. It is largely white with a higher-than-average median income, and along the main highway are numerous retail and big box stores. Raymore also has had some interesting political twists and turns. In this episode, we hear from a librarian, a marketing analyst, a doctor, and a husband-and-wife pair that runs a newspaper.
TJ Gilmore has been a city councilman since 2011. He’s also a Scoutmaster, an occasional tweeter of council meetings, and someone whose dad once came to watch him at city hall. He told me about the time someone got kicked out for using a naughty word!
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Q: Some people probably don’t know that Texas has its OWN pledge of allegiance that you say at council meetings after the national Pledge of Allegiance.
A: That’s very true!
Q: When you moved to Texas and first heard the pledge, did you think, “this is cool! It’s doubly patriotic”? Or did you kind of roll your eyes and think, “this is such a quintessentially Texas thing to do”?
A: It is a totally Texas thing to do. When I was a small child, my father took a job in west Texas and I encountered it there for the first time. When we came back to live here in 2000, it popped back up and I went, “oh, there it is!”
Q: Can you remember any unruly or unexpected moments from your city council meetings?
A: The most entertaining one was almost two years ago, I think. We had a gentleman come in with his girlfriend and he decided that he wanted to talk about the Lewisville Lake Dam. We have a dam that’s run by the [Army] Corps of Engineers. It was in the news because it needed some repair.
Q: Mmhmm.
A: So he came in and was–I don’t know if he was showing off for his young lady–but he decided that he would go into a tirade about why the city was not fixing the dam. It’s run by the federal government, so when he was given those facts he decided to curse. At which point, Mayor [Rudy] Durham said, “that’s it, you’re out!”
Lewisville, TX Councilman TJ Gilmore
Q: Did they look like they were on a date? Or were they coming in because they were concerned about the dam?
A: I got the vibe that he was there to show off. Speak truth to power or something. That would be the first time I ever heard anybody drop the F-bomb in city council.
Q: I have noticed how relatively non-eventful Lewisville city council meetings are–which is what made this Facebook post of yours stand out to me:
What do you remember from that meeting?!
A: It went fine! My dad is 6’4″. He still rides horses and used to work for Sheriff Joe Arpaio as a prison guard. He tells it like it is.
Q: Well, he should be the one to kick people out if they’re f-in’ around in there!
A: There’s one thing I know in my family: I’m not ever gonna be allowed to allow my ego to overstep its bounds.
Q: One council moment I want to ask you about…in September 2011, Councilman David Thornhill died of a heart attack. The next council meeting, there was a tribute video with pictures of him and a eulogy from his son. Is it hard sometimes to be fully present in the council meeting when something like that goes on?
A: Oh, sure. Part of the importance of being up there is to relate to people and what they need. I think it’s important that we recognize the things we lose, the things we gain–what had value.
City Council Chronicles 