When’s the last time you turned to elected leaders for moral clarity? Polling shows those in Washington are considered only slightly more trustworthy than telemarketers. That makes what happened at the last Santa Monica City Council meeting all the more remarkable.
The council was voting on new rules of order for their meetings, which may sound misleadingly mundane. But they were deciding how much time the public will be allowed to speak and who will get to choose topics for discussion, issues that go to the heart of democratic governance.
Specifically, there was a proposal to require that a minimum of two council members back any item submitted for a meeting’s agenda, which would seem implicitly punitive on a council that is largely split six to one (emphasis on the one).
It’s unsurprising that many in the public assumed the proposal was aimed at Councilmember Lana Negrete, who is often the one in opposition to the six and who solely sponsored an embarrassing item at the previous council meeting raising questions about the management of an affordable housing project in the Pico neighborhood. However, the surprising part is that Negrete wasn’t the only council member voicing objections to the new proposal. All the council members expressed their disapproval, with Mayor Caroline Torosis calling it “undemocratic.”
I had braced myself for pettiness and petulance, which is the kindest description possible for some of the commentary at the previous meeting. But instead they took the high road. There was thoughtful deliberation and collaborative effort for consensus. In short, it was effective democracy in action, and it’s noteworthy because of how rarely we see it or maybe the issue is how rarely we notice it.
You may know that last week was the star-studded grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. It’s odd to feel nostalgic about a period less than a decade back, but times have changed. President Barack Obama acknowledged as much when he spoke of loud, extreme voices commanding our attention and “appealing to our basest most tribal instincts.” He said “it’s tempting to give in to cynicism and even despair, to stop trying. We start thinking that appeals to democracy and civic participation are corny and old-fashioned and boring and naive.”
But he wouldn’t be “the one,” if he merely dwelled on our challenges, and he wasn’t interested in nostalgia. He could have easily used the occasion for a well-earned speech about his accomplishments, but instead he focused on our country’s accomplishments and our aspirations.
It’s reassuring to once again hear a President speaking about the importance of “character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, a sense of duty and honor,” pointing out that “they are not Republican or Democratic values. They’re American values,” he said. He described them as “our greatest inheritance, the story of America at its best, because it reflects a basic faith in the decency of our fellow citizens and the possibility that despite all of our differences, we can see each other and understand one another and make common cause together.”
That is what our council members did at their last meeting. It doesn’t exonerate their destructive behavior regarding neighborhood groups. It doesn’t excuse the lack of transparency around the coastal development bill (AB 1740). And it doesn’t explain why a rule change the Mayor labeled as “undemocratic” was considered beneficial when Councilmember Dan Hall first suggested it.
But those are quibbles for another day or at least another column. (We may also question why Obama removed his center from oversight by the National Archives and Records Administration, setting a precedent that the current President is wielding for his own self-dealing purposes.)
For now, we can still savor the glow of soul-stirring inaugural performances in Chicago by Jennifer Hudson, Bruce Springsteen, and John Legend (viewable online), while closer to home, we can be grateful for one brief shining moment of competence and comity, if not Camelot. And we can hope for more.
Devan Sipher can be reached at Devan@smdp.com.