 Peg
Pinard
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Disempowering Citizens
by Peg Pinard
Most Americans believe that their government
should be primarily based on the will of its citizenry. But
something very interesting has gradually happened. In many
American cities, and counties, there has been a very quiet
shift away from "citizen based government" towards a concept
of "stakeholder based government." As one expert explained it,
the "stakeholder groups" in any particular city may include
the following:
1. The residents or citizens
of that city.
2. The owners of business interests in the city who do not live
there.
3. The owners of land in the city who do not live there.
4. Those representing the tourists who may visit the city.
With just that one word change, "stakeholder,"
government changes its relationship to its residents. It is now
standard practice in staff reports prepared for city councils to routinely give the input of the "stakeholder interest groups"
deemed most relevant. This may or may not include the input of
city residents — even those who will live closely with the
impacts.
While most of us can agree that residents of a city don’t exist
in a vacuum, and that input from various "stakeholder interest
groups" are also welcome, the scale has tipped far beyond what
most city residents would imagine.
An example of this happened in our long established residential
neighborhood. As background, it had been the existing city
policy to keep utility boxes low key and unobtrusive. Then the
city worked with the "downtown, commercial stakeholders group"
to change that policy in the commercial area of downtown. A
program of painting utility boxes with art work began. Many
of you have probably seen these art projects.
But what didn’t happen was talking with the neighborhood
residents when the city's "stakeholder groups" decided to
include painting the utility boxes in our residential
neighborhood, right in front of our homes.
They never asked the residents, who would have to look at this
every day, if they wanted the policy of keeping the
boxes unobtrusive changed; and secondly, for input on what would
would be painted on individual utilility boxes adjacent to
family homes.
As a result, this is what we woke up to one morning. This is
what several "stakeholder groups"’ thought would be good for our
families and children to see outside our windows. This is what
they thought would add to the value of a family's single biggest
investment — their home. When I questioned the city staff about
the whole issue of not including the residents in this decision, she replied
"Well, we had OUR meetings!" City staff was pointing out that
the "stakeholders groups" who were deemed most important to this
proposed project were the "downtown, commercial stakeholders
group" and the "stakeholder group representing art interests."
City residents were simply left out.
This also affects a city council’s responsiveness to its
residents. Instead of being responsible to the residents who
elected them and the ones who will have to live with the
consequences, the designation 'stakeholder' puts residents on a
par with others who may not even reside in that jurisdiction.
Citizens become just one of many players at the proverbial
table.
Sadly, this is occurring with increasing frequency in the
city
of San Luis Obispo for both policy changes and in the review of
small and large development projects. It is also happening in
other cities and throughout the county.
And how can this be changed? It won't be easy. But, it can be done with
the interest and power of one stakeholder group….and that’s YOU
and the residents of your community.
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