Incivility in Government
When healthy debate
turns into disruptive disagreement, democracy slips away.
I attended a session at the Minnesota Association
of Townships annual meeting in Duluth in December that summarized the results of a task force report on incivility in local government.
The task force report
could have been written for those of us in Eureka.
After I list the contributing factors to incivility that the
task force identified and the costs of incivility, I will list possible solutions.
See if any of these things ring true for you (and if you see a glimmer of hope).
See if any of these things ring true for you (and if you see a glimmer of hope).
What contributes to
incivility?
- Lack of a shared vision for the future of the community
- Financial crisis, whether real or perceived
- Single issue politics or hidden agendas coupled with a lack of interest in a representative’s full responsibility
- Role confusion and power conflicts between elected and appointed members and staff
- Personal power seeking and self aggrandizement that may be accompanied by bullying tactics
- Unethical or illegal behavior
- Ideological commitment and partisan politics
- Lack of interpersonal skills including poor communication to rudeness
- Lack of transparency and timely communication with citizens
What are the costs of
incivility?
- Inability of the local government to function efficiently
- A spillover into the community itself, creating a toxic political environment that makes it even more difficult to find consensus on urgent priorities
- Chilling effect on participation. Good people don’t want to serve. Who needs this?
- Loss of talented staff
- Young people not participating
- Action to limit local government control for malfeasance (e.g. loss of zoning authority)
- Loss of private investment in an unstable or hostile community
- Neglect of infrastructure investment
- Inability to work with surrounding communities and authorities or bad reputation among them
- Costly legal actions against the local government
- Negative effect on the personal health and well being of the officials and staff including violent actions against them
As I listened to these lists of causes and costs of
incivility, I thought that the speaker from the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC)
must have somehow eavesdropped on Eureka Township’s recent Board and Planning
Commission meetings.
What can we do?
- Set expectations of civility with rules and procedures for the officials and the public
- Consider adopting a code of ethics or statement of aspirational values. Example are available from the LMC
- Work on citizen engagement and a broad base of support for community projects. Make sure citizens understand the importance of their vote
- Allow the public to be heard. People who feel shut out may resort to disruptive behaviors
- Promote the Township’s accomplishments. Use newsletters to aggressively inform citizens about what is going on
- Never assume that elected and appointed officials and staff understand their roles. Take the time and money for training
- Training is especially important for a presiding officer. It is a requirement for a well run meeting and one in which they will not be undermined. The presiding officer is responsible for maintaining civility in the meeting and should be versed in tactics to deal with incivility and bullying.
League of Minnesota Cities, League of Minnesota Cities and
Minnesota City/County Management Association Joint Task Force Report on
Civility, ©2014
What an interesting read. A MUST read for every public official on the Eureka Planning Commission and Board. It is unfortunate that the event in Duluth was not attended by all local officials. It is quite disturbing to attend meetings as a citizen and be able to identify with "What Contributes to Incivility" and realize the cost to the Eureka citizens. I believe every bullet point was applicable to our local government. However, we do have Town Board Supervisors and Planning Commission members who act with professionalism and civility. I am grateful for their ability to function in this matter. For others, personal agendas are so transparent.
ReplyDeleteI attended a recent Town Board meeting where Supervisor Madden "crunched" and tossed on the floor 2 documents on seperate ocassions during the meeting with obvious disdain for the author, never took the time to read them and then turned to a citizen when he received a look of disbelief and mouthed F---Y--!
He later passed a note to the Clerk and states "this is just between you and me, you know what I mean." This type of behavior is inexcuseable and should never be tolerated. Body language is quite telling and speaks volumes.
Thank you for taking time out from your schedule to attend such a very important event and bring back information that can be used as a tool to bring civility to our local government process and make meetings a worthwhile venue to attend. Tax paying citizens and anyone else attending the meetings deserve to be engaged in a civilized process and evening.