Political Will

What I’m learning about decision-making and public sentiment

An Annoying Answer

I’ve seen a need for something in my community for years. In a committee meeting during my first six months, I posed the question to our city staff. Their body language told me right away that this was a project with some history. I asked about costs and logistics, trying to determine what the barriers were.

Turns out, about 15 years ago, the topic came up and residents most immediately affected put up a huge fight. The council at the time backed down, and the project has been collecting dust ever since.

I asked what it would take to get this done. Our city manager looked at me point blank and said, “Political will.”

I’ll be honest - I was annoyed.

What kind of answer was that? What is political will anyway, and whose - mine? Does he think I lack the political will?

I felt my backbone bristling, and my stubborn rebellious streak kicking in, but I decided to sit with it and see if I could find the answer.

It’s probably been a year since that conversation, and I think I finally have an idea what political will is and why it will be necessary for this project.

Decisions, Decisions

In the last year, we’ve had a number of topics come to our council that required us to weigh in on what we want to allow in our city. These include zoning changes regulating marijuana dispensaries, exceptions to zoning requested by business owners trying to expand, and defining standards for property maintenance (and steps to take when a property owner doesn’t meet the standards).

Each of these questions activated passionate people who supported and who opposed the proposed changes. With the marijuana dispensary question, we received hundreds of emails and members of the community created a change.org petition that received more than 1000 signatures. Dozens of people spoke during the meeting in which we would vote on that decision.

I campaigned on the promise that I would put community first, that I would listen to constituents, and that I would represent them and their interests. When I first heard each of these topics, I had an immediate first impression and opinion. Most of us do, right?

I’ve always been a curious person, willing to ask questions and hear different perspectives, and that has served me well as a council member. I believe that truly serving one’s community requires setting your personal opinions aside in favor of listening and learning.

When I’m making a decision, these are the questions I ask:

• Is there a legally correct answer? Sometimes, especially with zoning issues, the actual question council is asked to vote on is narrowly defined by existing law or the zoning code itself. While we may be able to authorize exceptions, those are usually within defined limits.

• If we’re not guided by existing law, does a majority of the community have a preference? What data do we have? What seems to be the prevailing community sentiment?

• If there’s a conflict between residents and businesses, especially businesses coming from out of town, what’s best for residents? I believe that since residents elect us to city council, our primary loyalty is to them. We have to balance this with business interests, since our financial position as a city is built on businesses and their contribution to our revenues via income and profit taxes.

• If we don’t have a clear direction or request from the community, what do we believe is best for the community as a whole, both now and in the future?

• If there’s a clear division between members of the community, which path aligns best with our longterm plans, vision, values, and/or needs as a community?

Those questions help, but they still contain plenty of subjectivity. For starters, it’s important to define words like “best,” “balanced,” “alignment,” and “needs.” Those definitions need to include the present and the future and avoiding staying stuck in the past.

We also need clearly defined values. Foremost is responsible and accountable use of taxpayer dollars. Every time we approving spending it on something, we’re using money our fellow residents paid in.

One of my fellow council members shared with me that one of theirs (when it comes to city council) is safety - does the proposed action, investment, etc. directly improve the safety of people in the community?

I also look at quality of life and how we’re embracing the international, multi-cultural, multi-religious community we’ve become.

Notice that I didn’t specifically name my personal preferences. They certainly come into play in defining some of those subjective terms and in establishing core values. But if I just happen to dislike something, I don’t see that as justification for rejecting it on behalf of the community.

I personally don’t mind having dispensaries in a community - at least that marijuana is regulated! But the vast majority of the voices I heard on that topic didn’t want the businesses here, so I voted to keep them out of our city. My integrity and my desire to serve the community supersedes my personal views.

Trade-offs

When people disagree about the path forward, we look for compromises, which unfortunately means trade-offs. Ideally, everyone walks away only somewhat disappointed. But occasionally, something is a really big deal to one or a few - it may genuinely change their day-to-day life… a lot. When a project offers a really big benefit to the community as a whole, we find ourselves in a situation where, in the words of Spock on Star Trek, “The needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few… or the one.”

I’ve heard from staff about folks unhappy about a new fire station going up across the street, road widening or other improvements, multi-use paths skirting their property, and even beautification projects. They tell me that everyone likes knowing first responders are close, driving on good roads, and walking on well-maintained paths through beautiful surroundings, once they’re done. But no one is excited about the mess, noise, disruption or change required.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked about why something is one way or another, and the staff told me that the community’s fierce resistance succeeded in stopping/rerouting/etc. In retrospect, we can all acknowledge that the community was wrong, or at least short-sighted.

It’s these situations which require political will. Whether you’re a council member, board member, trustee, legislator, etc., you need a strong backbone to make and stand by a decision that you know will be best in the long run when it’s deeply unpopular in the moment.

That’s the scenario I’m facing now. The project I wrote about at the beginning will dramatically improve everyday life for thousands of residents, safety for those in the immediate vicinity, and response times for first responders. However, the prospect of changes in that immediate vicinity is likely to make those residents (a small number compared to the total population) really unhappy, and they will fight it hard.

I really do understand the people who don’t want this to happen. The challenges they face in their neighborhood are real. We can work to mitigate negative consequences, but fear is powerful.

Objectively, we all acknowledge that it has to be done eventually. We have the money, we have the staff and expertise. The question is whether my fellow council members and I have the political will required to get it done.

Will we stand firm, knowing it must be done for the good of the whole, in spite of the outcry, in spite of active campaigns against our re-election? In spite of possible confrontations out in the community? After all, we shop the same stores, walk our dogs in the same parks, and attend the same events.

I don’t know yet.

(Side note: I’ve learned that sometimes it isn’t the council that failed to consider the future. Sometimes it’s developers trying to maximize their profits, as mentioned above. This explains why some neighborhoods in our city have sidewalks and some don’t, for example. Putting in sidewalks after the fact, while it would improve safety for pedestrians, is extremely difficult due to right-of-way, property line issues, and costs. I’ve looked into it!)