Informed judgment

About 35 folks filed into the Tall Poppy Café last Thursday evening to consider their role in local government. It’s not as though there weren’t other things to do— the Pirates were fighting for their playoff lives in Picton. And pies were fetching $100 at the spring supper hosted by the Hillier Women’s Institute.

The eagerness, enthusiasm and even the venting of frustration on Thursday offered more evidence that there is a hunger in this community to be helpful—to put one’s talents and experience to work in some manner to improve the lot of our neighbours, our community and the rich natural beauty that greets us each morning when we venture forth from our homes.

The folks at the Tall Poppy on Thursday came to understand how local government works, the role and responsibilities of a councillor, how council relates and works with municipal staff, as well as the evolving tango between Shire Hall and media. They came to learn how they could help.

Some will run for council. Some will offer support, encouragement and labour to those who will run. Some will remain on the sidelines for now. But everyone took a step forward— toward engagement. Beyond detachment. Beyond the sense that everything is broken and nothing can be done to change things.

That, in and of itself, is an achievement. For there is plenty of evidence to discourage hope, to dampen enthusiasm. Fresh examples of unresponsive institutions and disconnected public officials are thrust upon us with distressing regularity.

While the response to shut it all out, to manage only what is directly controllable , may be seductive, each of us knows at some level that isn’t nearly enough. It may have to do, as a coping mechanism, for now, but as life’s more immediate challenges dwindle in frequency we inevitably return to the role we play in our community.

And as spring at last visits the County, there can only be hope and optimism. It is the only productive outlook—despite the evidence. That optimism was in full bloom at the Tall Poppy last week.

The question then becomes, how best to channel the creativity, energy and resourcefulness of the folks who are eager to roll up their sleeves and help? The County’s experience with advisory committees is mixed at best.

Currently County council seems on the verge of dismissing the recommendations of a committee formed 18 months ago to develop a master fire plan. Last year, council rejected the recommendations of an assembly of 23 citizens who spent three full days studying the size of council issue.

On the other hand, the County’s agricultural advisory committee succeeded in steering this municipality through to a workable compromise on the thorny issue of minimum distance separation (a particularly misguided bit of provincial legislation seeking to regulate farm odour).

Whether the health care advisory committee has moved the dial in this community’s withering battles to retain its hospital remains open to debate.

Yet there must surely be a role for citizens to participate more directly in the big decisions that shape our lives and those of our neighbours. It can only be a lack of creativity or, perhaps, an unwillingness to share in this responsibility that has stunted the development of a robust means of tapping into the wisdom and energy that is offered so willingly and freely in this community.

Among the more valuable contributions citizens can bring to the decision-making process, is the willingness to do the work to arrive at knowledgebased judgment. As Jonathan Rose put it so well last week, opinions are easy. Everyone has one. Many are eager to share—to cast them about.

At the outset of the first day of the Citizens’ Assembly last summer, Rose said bluntly he wasn’t interested in their opinions. Rather, he was interested in extracting from them knowledge-based judgment. To do this they would first have to educate themselves about the issues, reflect upon what they had learned and discuss it with their fellow participants. In time an informed judgment would rise to the surface. It did.

But a knowledge-based judgment is harder to extract than opinions. It requires time, focus, an open mind and a willingness to consider different perspectives. Who better to take on such a challenge than the citizens of the County. They who have demonstrated so many times they are eager to assume the hard tasks—eager to help.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca