[Electronic-lan] Fwd: Please improve transparency and community involvement in decisionmaking in the City of Lawrence

[Eric Kirkendall]

FYI, Eric

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Eric Kirkendall <kirkendall1 at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 5, 2017 at 3:42 PM
Subject: Please improve transparency and community involvement in
decisionmaking in the City of Lawrence
To: Leslie Soden <lesticia at yahoo.com>, Lisa Larsen <llarsen at lawrenceks.org>,
Matthew Herbert <matthewjherbert at gmail.com>, Stuart Boley <
sboley at lawrenceks.org>, Mike Amyx <mikeamyx515 at hotmail.com>
Cc: Diane Stoddard <dstoddard at lawrenceks.org>, Tom Markus <
tmarkus at lawrenceks.org>


Dear City Commissioners,

I appreciate the hard work all of you put into your job, and know that you
and city staff are trying to improve city government.

However, in recent months, several city actions of great interest to
residents have been made without transparency and community involvement.
This practice sows distrust, leads to poor decisions, is a bad governance
practice, and should stop immediately.

Please take action to resolve this problem.  Examples and recommendations
follow.

Examples

In the last few months, at least three issues have been the subject of
consternation and email discussions among different groups of residents
concerning the lack of transparency and community involvement:


   1.

   Bicycle priorities
   2.

   Nitrate water discharge into the Kansas River from the former Farmland
   site
   3.

   Defunding of utility payment drop boxes


In each case, planned city actions were contained in the city manager’s
report at the end of the meeting - sometimes with insufficient
information.  In case #1, which took place this summer, a resident waited
until the end of the meeting to comment and then was refused the
opportunity by the city commission.

In case #2, residents were never informed by the city of plans to dump
polluted water into the Kansas River, but learned of the plans very late
through a newspaper article, and of details through Johnson County
residents.  By the time I shared (and I think surprised) the city
commission with news that releases of polluted water into the Kansas River
were imminent, they were actually underway.

I don’t have details on #3, but can tell you that the city’s decision
without public input has caused considerable consternation.

To resolve these problems, I recommend the following:

Recommended Actions


   1.

   Move the city manager’s report to the beginning of the city commission
   meeting, so residents can tell you their recommendations after they hear
   about the city manager’s plans, but before action is taken.



   1.

   Put a few informed citizens on the task force charged with finding a
   long-term solution for disposal of the pollution associated with the
   Farmland remediation.



   1.

   Ensure that decisions that will affect Lawrence residents are always
   made with sufficient citizen involvement and transparency.


Thank you

Eric Kirkendall

785-550-3408 <(785)%20550-3408>
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