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A Night With the Council
Once a year I have to present an official librarian’s report to the city council. It’s no big deal, really. I write up a one-page report on the year’s highlights with a few key statistics, create a cover sheet and a notarization page, add a balance sheet and detailed reports of last year’s expenditures and this year’s budget, and put it on library stationery. Then the president of the library’s Board of Trustees (i.e., my boss) signs it in the presence of a notary public.
Though each member of the city council gets a copy, I still have to actually go there and formally present it to them at a council meeting. Usually I don’t have far to go, since the council now holds most of their meetings in the library’s community room. This time around, for reasons I still don’t understand, they decided to hold it downtown in another building. Ironically this place used to be the library years ago. Since then the place has been remodeled. It now looks quite nice, with hardwood floors and plenty of window space. The evening sun flooded the room with light and made it a bit on the warm side.
When I got there that evening the Mayor and council were all ready to go. The Mayor, a very hefty, soft-spoken former police officer, sat at the head of the table. From everything I’ve ever seen of him he is a really good guy. He works hard, stays personally involved with the city’s business, and leaves us at the library to manage ourselves. Once in a while when something goes amiss at the library after hours he will send a police car to pick me up at home, which gets me some rather odd looks. His office has quite a collection of John Wayne memorabilia.
Beside him sat the city attorney, ready to prepare drafts of ordinances and provide the formal readings of them required by law. He has a very pronounced Mississippi delta accent. If the local players ever have a production of To Kill a Mockingbird they should try to get him to play Atticus Finch. He would be a natural. He is often rather fidgety. From where I sat I saw his legs constantly dancing up and down under the table. It was a bit distracting.
Also at the table were the Mayor’s secretary (who has to co-sign every check I write when I spend library money—every Wednesday I have to take her the payroll and bills to sign) and the six council members. As is usually the case with small-town city councils, they tended to be older people. Those who have current careers and young families don’t tend to find council membership attractive. It takes a lot of one’s time, and there is no way to make a living at it. We do not have the sort of small-town government where city officials have opportunities to make their fortunes on the side. I know that from experience! I’m the third- or fourth-highest-paid city official here, and I make less than many teachers around the country. You certainly don’t work for our city for the money.
Also in the room were a couple of local newspaper reporters. Members of the water commission and other city officials stood ready to make their presentations. A few spectators brought the total number present to about two dozen. One of the spectators is a man who seems to make a point of attending every meeting. We see him at the library now and then too. He is a man of very definite opinions who gives the impression of being potentially hard to please.
At the appointed time the Mayor called the meeting to order and asked one of the council to deliver an invocation. Many would consider this opening prayer at the start of a council meeting a violation of separation of church and state. Around here it has never stirred much controversy. The nondenominational prayer was really quite innocuous. The speaker simply asked for guidance in transacting business in the best interests of the community and said amen. We then all stood and placed our hands on our hearts and faced the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance.
The meeting carefully followed formal parliamentary procedure. Each act by the council required a roll-call vote. The Mayor’s secretary conducted this by calling each member’s name in turn and noting the response. It’s remarkable how quickly it went. Each vote took only a few seconds.
The Mayor requested that an item of old business be kept for last, as it promised to take up a lot of time. Once the council had voted on this, they moved to the first item of new business. The water commissioners reported on a plan to build a new treatment plant. Our water is safe to drink but hard enough to break a sledgehammer. Another town in the area recently built a new plant that greatly improved their city’s water. Not only did it make things easier on everybody’s plumbing, it helped them to attract new industry. The council members asked pertinent questions about the costs and got considered replies from the commissioners. Best of all, they estimated that they could fund this project within current revenues. There would be no need for a utility rate increase. The measure passed.
After minor resolution involving a grant for the city sports complex, my turn came. I stepped up to the lectern. After doing three of these before I no longer feel nearly as nervous as I once did. I did not even worry about dressing formally. Most of the rest of the council and officials present did not. I read my report and ad libbed a few comments about the highlights. Then I talked about some projects we had at the library, such as the new public access computers we planned to install this week.
I asked for any questions. The man who attends all the council meetings announced that he had a comment. At this I did get a little nervous. I need not have been. He commented that the service he had received at the library was some of the most courteous he had received anywhere. That was good to hear. I made a mental note to be sure to share that with the staff the next day.
With no further questions or comments, my part of the program was over and I returned to my seat. Now the council tackled that old business they had been saving for last. For some time they had been working off and on to draw up an improved animal control ordinance. It’s a big deal here. This is a dog-loving community. Many tend to overdo it by keeping large numbers of dogs for security or for hunting. One of the city’s public works officials noted that he has complaints of families with eight or more dogs on their lot. Numerous and fierce dogs can get to be a nuisance and a threat to neighbors. I know that there are a few places in town where I avoid walking for all the barking, snarling dogs I encounter.
There was a lot of discussion about the measure, about the need for careful definitions and the need to put teeth (so to speak) in the ordinance to make it possible to enforce it. Quite a few inadequacies in the wording of the existing proposal came out. One man, who sat beside me, spoke with some feeling about his hopes that the new measures would not be too harsh. He and his family had to keep dogs for security. They were not doing anything wrong and did not want to be penalized. The council listened respectfully to his concerns. It was clear from their discussion that they wanted very much to get it right.
Eventually they decided that they would have to table the ordinance and go back to the drawing board. One member offered to take her notes of all the proposals and concerns to try to produce a draft. The Mayor, who has obviously gotten rather tired of dealing with the issue, urged them to get something drawn up well before the next meeting so that they could tweak it and be ready to pass it next time.
There was no further business, and so the council voted to adjourn. We lingered a bit, speaking to various people present. Some of the members of the council had some nice things to say about the library. I spoke with one, who I know personally, about some of the things we had going on.
As we left the building the last of the evening sun had begun to fade. It had been a beautiful day. The sun’s departure had left a gathering chill. I caught a ride home.
It is fashionable to treat public officials big and small with the utmost cynicism. There are certainly plenty who deserve that kind of attitude. In my experience, though, most of them are very public-spirited people, doing a job that carries little material reward and often little thanks. They keep the public’s business running. Someone has to, after all.
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The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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