[Peace-discuss] Champaign City Council ignores commissioned recommendations

[Laurie]

I doubt it is a stalling tactic, although it very well could be; but to say
it is a deliberate stalling tactic gives too much credit for intelligent
rationality to the members of City Council and assumes that they engage in
any long range strategizing.

Despite the best intentions of the various boards and commissions in
Champaign (and some are made of good people and do good work), one has to
realize that for the most part the tasks, objectives, agendas, procedures,
and processes are dictated by the City Staff who are present at all the
meeting of the various boards and commissions and pretty much control things
that get taken up by them and what comes out of them.  The documents that
come out of board and commissions typically reflect the City Staff's
position which typically in not out of line with that of the Council who has
been well prepared by the staff so as to give the boards and commissions the
direction and tasks that the staff wants; it is only when the staff does not
do a good indoctrination that we get board and commission recommendations at
variance with the position of the Council and with the staff positions.  

The reports and documents that come out of the boards and commissions are
only accepted and used if they back up pre-established policy decisions and
positions and can be used to justify and rationalize those policy decisions
and positions so as to further legitimize them as in line with public input;
otherwise, they are ignored.  As a result, they are not good tools for
exposing faulty arguments since neither the public officials or most of the
public pay any attention to the substance of any arguments or care if they
are faulty or not.  It is practical power and economic politics; it is not a
rational intellectual discussion based on logic and principles of good
empirical argumentation. 

Probably, a more effective action would be to fill the council chambers with
members of the public who overwhelm the Council by filling the chambers with
members of the public lining up those members of the public to talk for
their allotted 5 minutes on each and every item on the agenda (leaving the
chamber after they give their five minutes so that other new persons waiting
outside the chamber can come into the chamber to speak for their five
minutes) such that they can get nothing done and are forced to postpone
decisions or stay all night long.  If you have 100 members of the public
doing this one each issue at every meeting of the council be it a study
session or a formal Council Meeting, the members of the staff and Council
will get the message and realize that as a matter of practicality they
cannot take up and decide issues independent of the public.  The members of
the City Council will have to keep the issue open until all the members of
the public get a chance to have their input or admit that they are not
permitting public input.  I am sure that this would cause very effective
disruption of business as usual.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net [mailto:peace-discuss-
> bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Karen Medina
> Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 3:19 PM
> To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] Champaign City Council ignores commissioned
> recommendations
> 
> Peace Discuss,
> 
> I agree with Laurie about the Chamapaign City Council and I think there
> is a real danger here. For these reports, the groups were specifically
> asked by the City of Champaign to look into these issues and come up
> with a recommendation. Perhaps this act of commissioning is being used
> as a stalling tactic. Even if it is not intentionally used in this way,
> stalling is the net effect: the public is asked to wait patiently. With
> the waiting, we run the risk of letting these important issues move
> lower on the public's "to do" list because there is not much to be done
> for an entire year. The stalling works against us, but the fruits of
> the stall are our best weapons.
> 
> We really need to make sure the public has access to these commissioned
> reports. The reports have been well thought out and the arguements well
> made; much better than any opposing arguments made by the City Council
> members. In fact, these reports are the very tool with which we can
> expose the faulty arguments of the members.
> 
> -karen medina
> 
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:24:19 -0500
> >From: "Laurie at advancenet.net" <laurie at advancenet.net>
> >Subject: RE: [Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] Champaign City Council Votes
> 6-3 Against Section 8
> >To: <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> >
> >Well just to prove that the City Council's propensity to ignore the
> >recommendations of its commissions that it does not agree with is not
> >discriminatorily directed to the Human Relations Commission or even
> the
> >Police Community Committee's recommendations, one should note that the
> >Champaign City Council also rejected the Liquor Advisory Board's
> >recommendations that they had worked on for over a year and even
> >suggestively hinted that that Board be abolished.
> >
> >One really needs to recognize and accept the fact that except for some
> very
> >ideological issues in which the conservative establishment movers and
> >shakers (i.e., landlords, developers, commercial property owners,
> bars, and
> >the University) push for, the Champaign City Council rarely does
> anything
> >more than rubberstamp the recommendations coming from City Staff and
> the
> >City Manager.  Most of the population of the City of Champaign are
> content
> >to let the City Staff and elected officials getaway with relinquishing
> >control to the movers and shakers; in fact they even actively support
> and go
> >along with supporting these actions by their elected officials and the
> >unelected staff.
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net [mailto:peace-
> discuss-
> >> bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Karen Medina
> >> Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 9:59 AM
> >> To: Peace Discuss List
> >> Subject: [Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] Champaign City Council Votes 6-
> 3
> >> Against Section 8
> >>
> >> John Wason wrote:
> >> >   I reiterate....it seems like the very definition of
> >> >   futility to serve on any of the City of Champaign's
> >> >   "Human Relations" type commissions.
> >>
> >> John is very right.
> >>
> >> The Champaign City Council ignored the Human Rights Council's
> >> suggestions after a year of work on the wording regarding the
> Section
> >> 8.
> >>
> >> The City Council also ignored all the work that was done for the
> >> Citizen's Police Review Board, which was more than 1 years worth of
> >> work.
> >>
> >> -karen medina
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