Roland,
Although what you say here is not surprising to me since I've been paying attention to politics for a while, I think it is both generally true and a matter of serious public concern. When it comes to government planning, perhaps the only thing worse than arbitrary decisions about who can build and who cannot build what based on public input, are arbitrary decisions about who can build and who cannot build what based on insider politics and corruption with *no* public input.
Here are three suggested reforms designed to address some of the problems identified in your message:
• Being able to ask questions and get answers
A regular monthly "Question Time" should be established for each government body, including the members Board of Supervisors, the Mayor and his/her staffers, and board, commission, task force, etc., to respond to questions from members of the public, at which these officials would be *required* to answer the questions posed to them. In addition to this formal "Question Time", members of the public should be able to use their public comment speaking time to ask questions and get official responses, by yielding a specified amount of their own public comment time to hear an answer from one or more officials to whom they have directed a question. The official(s) to whom the question is directed would then be allotted that amount of time -- no less and no more -- to answer the question, unless the questioner is satisfied with a shorter answer and wants the official to stop talking and yield back the balance of the time, at which point s/he should be able to cut the official off and resume his/her own public comment
• Yielding speaking time to other members of the public
People present at public hearings who do not wish to give public comment, or who do not wish to use their full speaking time, should be able to yield their unused time to other members of the public of their choice -- this should be done by filling out a card pre-formatted for this purpose and giving it to the individual(s) to whom they wish to yield their time, with the card containing blanks for them to fill in their name, the name of the person to whom they wish to yield speaking time, the amount of time they wish to yield, and their signature. A clerk should keep track of the amounts of time yielded and the individuals yielding it, so that an individual cannot yield more time than the amount to which s/he is entitled.
• Public input in scheduling hearings
Members of the public should be able to sign up online as interested in attending or giving public comment at a public hearing to be held within the time frame of a certain week. One month out, the specific date, time, and location of the hearing should be scheduled based on the results of an online vote, with each member of the public who has signed up as interested in attending having one vote, each person designated by the board or commission to appear on the agenda having two votes, and each board member or commissioner having five votes. A list of no fewer than 3 times and 2 locations from which to choose shall be prepared by staff, with each member of the public allowed to submit an additional time and/or location to be voted on as a write-in choice from a list of qualified write-in choices.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
Outreach Director, Libertarian Party of San Francisco
“In general, it can probably be said that the conservative does not object to coercion or arbitrary power so long as it is used for what he regards as the right purposes. He believes that if government is in the hands of decent men, it ought not to be too much restricted by rigid rules. Since he is essentially opportunist and lacks principles, his main hope must be that the wise and the good will rule – not merely by example, as we all must wish, but by authority given to them and enforced by them. Like the socialist . . . he regards himself as entitled to force the value he holds on other people.”
– F. A. Hayek
“Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men, generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse.”
– Henry David Thoreau
"Power concedes nothing without a struggle."
– Frederick Douglass