Taking Cuts
Goodbye ping, hello zing. Leaving the Seaside Spartans in the batting cages as the sun sets over the bay, I arrive at the Sustainable Seaside meeting at the Oldemeyer Center without changing out of my coaching garb. I take a seat in the back as about thirty-five people, including two Seaside Council members, arrive for a discussion of a fiscal impact report on the Monterey Downs project, dating back to March of 2014. The come as you are, sit in back approach is purposeful. I’m just here to listen.
Yesterday, the Spartans traveled to Gilroy for three mini scrimmage games. Thirty-seven plate appearances were meticulously charted to develop specific batting practice plans, as well as some overall strategy. The overall strategy was simple - fortune favors the bold. Go to the plate with a plan, attack the pitcher, swing like you mean it when you swing. The strategy is simple, but it takes practice to perfect. Offensive preparation starts with understanding good pitching beats good hitting, but hitters can practice more than pitchers. So spend more time in the cage.
Fortune favors the bold applies to community outreach as well. Kudos to Bill Weigle for taking a cut at walking folks through the fiscal impact report. Bill’s an intelligent (Ph.D) and reasonable guy, posing good questions about parts of the report. Don’t interpret that last sentence as agreeing with everything he says, for I don’t. But I’ve weighed into public policy controversies as a citizen / outsider (as well as a staff member, obviously) before, so I appreciate his interest and approach. Over more than an hour of presentation, there were only one or two zingers that may have been a touch too harsh, but he’s the one who has stepped up to the plate, so that has to be respected.
I sit in the back, wanting to blurt out “fiscal impact models are tools for negotiations and these are drafts”. I don’t for two reasons. The first is this isn’t a City meeting. It’s a citizen’s meeting. Sit down, shut up, listen. Answer a question if you’re asked. The second is Bill’s been trying to understand the fiscal impacts as a citizen. That’s a perfectly legitimate effort, but he’s had to file public records act requests to get data. His frustration is palpable, and sincere.
It’s been more than twenty-five years since I created the first fiscal impact model for Vernon Hills, Illinois. I got the pertinent inputs and outputs formatted onto one letter-sized page, and wrestled the formulas off the page, as they were generally distracting for the decision-makers at the time. The one page sheet was included in every staff review, plan commission and board packet, as the projects proceeded through review. No model is perfect, but the effort worked as intended. Today, Vernon Hills boasts a AAA bond rating, with no municipal property tax. That’s a neat trick to pull off, and it required an approach similar to that recommended for the baseball Spartans – step up to the plate with a plan and attack the problem. Swing like you mean it.
Bill’s taking some BP tonight from the small crowd, and putting balls smartly into play. As I sit in the back and only say one thing when asked (about earth-moving efficiency, of all things), my perspective is this – Bill shouldn’t have to be filing public records act requests for information. It only leads to mistrust and misinformation about outdated drafts. This info needs to be on our website, as promptly as possible.
The City needs to take a different approach at the plate of community outreach, and fortune favors the bold.
