Midcoast Council battles internal ‘dysfunction’
By Greg Thomas [ .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ]
Published Wednesday, Jul 30, 2008

Midcoast Community Council Secretary Neil Merrilees has suspended his “themed meetings” approach to facilitating council discussion due to what he perceives as the disrespectful behavior of council members toward both audience members and guest speakers alike.

Hosting themed meetings was an idea Merrilees brought to the council shortly after his election in November 2007. He hoped that such meetings would focus the council on larger community issues on the Coastside and away from the minutiae that had seized previous councils.

Merrilees has hosted several themed meetings, but now he says that the council’s behavior has caused him to suspend the concept.

“Sometimes it seemed like the people who came were not being treated as respectfully as they should have been,” Merrilees said. “I was feeling a little bit embarrassed to have invited people and have the meetings be so dysfunctional.”

The council’s meeting on July 9 was the last straw for Merrilees. He invited the county building inspector, the inspector’s assistant, and the director of the county Planning and Building Department to discuss green building practices.

“They’re county officials and they’re not going to give me negative feedback (on their experience at the meeting), I think,” Merrilees said. “But I did get negative feedback from audience members — that they were embarrassed about how the meetings were run.”

Merrilees said he would entertain themed meetings in the future if members can “work out the kinks of the meeting process” and make it friendlier and more receptive to outside participation.

Merrilees had hoped that focusing the council’s semi-monthly agendas on specific themed issues would help the council attract greater participation from both residents and officials and provide a foundation for the kind of strength and support the council has been lacking.

“I want the relationship (between the MCC and county officials) to be as good as possible,” Merrilees said. “It’s incredibly important because the county government is our only government, and we can’t pretend that we don’t need them or that we’re separate from them. We do need them. But the respect has to be there first before people will come.”

For their part, other council members say they have not been disrespectful.

“All of us tend to get passionate and we tend to speak out of turn,” acknowledged Vice Chair Kathryn Slater-Carter. “I don’t think there’s any one of us that hasn’t been guilty of that.”

Slater-Carter views the MCC as a community forum for anybody to openly air issues and maintains that the council always makes it a point to recognize audience members and give them opportunity to speak.

Chair Leonard Woren thinks these complaints are “sour grapes from somebody who didn’t get what he wanted,” though he admits that the council needs to shape up a bit.

“I think there’s still room for improvement,” he said. “In particular, we don’t have much community involvement.”

Woren and Slater-Carter deny that the reason for the lack of involvement could be linked to the allegedly harsh atmosphere of the meetings. Woren noted that, to his knowledge, there hasn’t been much community involvement with the council in at least four years, since before he was elected to the board.

That lack of involvement has almost doomed the council in the past. County Supervisor Rich Gordon declined to appoint two members of the board a year ago because he hoped a lively campaign would stimulate community involvement with the advisory committee.

While Woren denied any disrespect, he said he has had it with some observers — including his colleague, Merrilees.

“If one of the people who was supposedly disrespected contacts me, then I will respond to it,” Woren said. “But I will not listen to Neil or Darin (Boville, of Montarafog.com, who videotapes the MCC meetings and shows them on his Web site). Frankly, I don’t care any more what they have to say.”

Merrilees says that, despite his frustrations with the council right now, he plans to stick it out for the long-term benefit of the Coastside.

“We’d had a list of theme meetings coming up, all of which are very important to people on the coast — parallel trail, design issues, trees,” Merrilees said. “But until we, A.) learn how to run the meetings better and, B.) act on the results of the meetings with letters of support to the county — until we get that process going — it could be that we’re just moving backwards.

“I’m not throwing up my hands and walking away,” he said. “I’m throwing up my hands and digging in deeper.”

I agree/disagree with Neil. Disagreement in discontinuing the themed-meetings, ... as it was pretty much the only compelling reason to attend the meetings… but looks like they’ll come back soon. I do agree in part with some of “lack of respect” going on. It’s been a bit more than “passionate” and “speaking out of turn” at times, let’s be clear on that. Nothing catastrophic, but I can’t imagine the behavior when/if a TRUE contrarian guest should present. (actually I can [shudders])

Anyways, I know the power of the MCC is somewhat limited, but perhaps a more proactive outcome from this body would help a lot. There’s quite of bit of sounding board-like discussions and opinions stated on some rather large topics (think of city council resolutions on the Iraq War… that is, only symbolic). Granted the MCC can provide some tremendous public oversight for water districts, CCC, County rule and so on, and it’s great to constructively blather about midcoast incorporation for 30-45 minutes, and start thinking about it… but it’s astoundingly out of MCCs influence (at least at this point). Why not cut some smaller pieces of civil steak, and actually produce an outcome that the public can see (i.e. some guidance on parks and rec $$$, traffic/safety issues, repainting a crosswalk, etc…). I understand the first by-law of the MCC to allow the Community to express itself to the greater County government (either through speaking, agenda additions, ...and moreover through their elected councilmembers), and something we need to keep in mind.

While I’m blathering ...I think more there’s a greater opportunity now with Coastsider, MontaraFog, HMB Review, etc… on posting meeting agendas, upcoming meeting topics, decisions, proclamations, etc. Rather than spending $$$ on sound systems for the 3 ppl in the audience and the other 3 watching on TV… use the money to get the word out, post/prior. Perhaps one of the upcoming additions to the Council team can/should be solely charged with communication (to the hilt). Forgive me, as I don’t know the posts of the vacancies, if there already is such a responsibility assumed.

annnnnnnnnnnnnnd let me take this opportunity to remind the MCC of what’s within their bylaws:

Notice of Meetings Due notice, including by posting of the agenda, of all meetings of the Community Council shall be given as provided by the Brown Act.

Written agenda: At least 72 hours before a regular or special meeting, unless the special meeting is called less than 72 hours (e.g. Friday 7pm Aug 2).

*a-hem*

P.S. All meetings of the Community Council shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Ralph M. Brown Act.

I didn’t write that.

I don’t know which, but either the reporter or the editor is guilty of grossly selective editing.  The Review tossed 95% of my comments and just picked the one inflammatory line without any of the background statements that I made.  Clearly the intent was to support the hit-piece editorial that they printed, and to drive a bigger wedge into the MCC.  The overdeveloper gang that keeps the Review in business hates anyone who points out that the emperor has no clothes, so they need to try to get those of us out who do the pointing.  The BoS has never liked any of the advice that they receive from this elected advisory body, so they simply ignore it.  If the MCC was changed to being appointed by the BoS, they would simply appoint people who would only tell them what they want to hear, begging the question of why there should even be an “advisory” council.

I don’t have time right now to set the record straight, but I’ll try to get to it asap.  Stay tuned.

This is why I stopped talking to the Review many years ago.  I guess I’ll be re-instating that policy.

This HMBR article is slanted and inaccurate.  The “themed”  meetings were developed by a committee of the MCC, of which Neil Merrilees was a participant.  The topics were taken from community and council input at initial meetings.  They were hosted by the MCC in a collaborative effort.  The guests at the meeting in question evolved from the prior meeting when the Director offered to return for a second meeting on the topic and bring other staff members.  The meetings were not suspended-  Neil suspended his participation.  The article gives a very different spin on the event and the roles of the participating parties.

I would like for any of the people who were “disrespected” to contact me personally and tell me specifically how they were disrespected, or else come to the Council and explain it.  Then something can be done to solve the claimed problem.  Lacking this, I have to assume that it’s only one person’s opinion that guests were “disrespected”.  No specifics have been provided, so there’s no reason to give this any credibility.  If there actually was any disrespect, I will apologize to those people if and when they are identified, and put effort into fixing the problem.

Where do we go for an apology for all the disrespect shown to coastsiders and to the MCC over the years by the county government, especially the supervisors?

Carl May - 05 August 2008 12:41 AM

Where do we go for an apology for all the disrespect shown to coastsiders and to the MCC over the years by the county government, especially the supervisors?

The County is at every meeting… show up, and ask them.

“The County is at every meeting ... show up, and ask them.”

Most of us passed that baby step decades ago. The pattycake, curtsey, and goshes phase is for naive beginners. Much more effective for actually getting things done with our county is going to the beach in the middle of a howling storm and whispering to the waves. More efficient use of time, as well.