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

[Richard Heckler]

I concur with the following:

To resolve these problems, I recommend the following:
Recommended Actions
   
   - 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.

   
   - 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.

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

 

    On Wednesday, December 6, 2017 4:16 PM, Susie Nightingale via Electronic-lan <electronic-lan at lists.ku.edu> wrote:
 

 I commend you for your forthright letter to the City Commission.
On Dec 6, 2017, at 8:20 AM, Eric Kirkendall via Electronic-lan wrote:

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:
   
   - Bicycle priorities
   - Nitrate water discharge into the Kansas River from the former Farmland site
   - 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
   
   - 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.

   
   - 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.

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

Thank you
Eric Kirkendall785-550-3408

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