Confessions of a Would Be Responsible Citizen

I must  admit up from that following the  happenings in  local government is much harder than I imagined. I am sure I just need to develop a system .  Some of the information I am  following is  clearly  offered on both the City and County  web pages.  I have been  trying to look over  Linn county Supervisors agendas, meeting minutes and the like.  I have also been able to read over the  pockets of information that are given to City Council Members.

Here are  a few of my  struggles so far:

1. Much of the information for City Council meetings is presented in a consent agenda form. If I understand that  correctly, the members have already examined the materials and discussed them before the City Council Meeting. So  what  we get by the time something is voted on,  the  public may or may not have a chance to speak to the issues.  This is a practical matter in most cases as not everything can be discussed with the public.

2. There is a lot of material to look through and try to get a grasp on. There are many areas that are beyond my  current understanding. I am not sure how the Supervisor's r  City Council members are able to grasp the  contents. It could be very  easy to  just  vote the way others do or to vote on something you don't have all the facts for.  The Council and Supervisors' knowledge on any given issue may  be based on information  given to them wholly , or in part , by the  individual departments.

3. Many  times when things require that there be a public hearing before they come to the agenda, it is difficult to locate the  times and places for those public hearings.

4. The information we as citizens, are asked to comment on is  sometimes incomplete. We are asked to assent to something before we have all the facts. It seems like it would be better if we could be presented more than just a thumbnail sketch.

5. The  dollar amounts on  some projects are so large that it is easy as a citizen to stop reading at that point. We may  not have a frame of reference as to whether a listed amount is  customary, reasonable or even imaginable.  The resolutions use language  that states the bids were reasonable and responsible. we just  have to take the word of those who deal with these things every day that this is true.

all of the above are merely issues I personally  am  contemplating.  I am more than willing to have others let me know how they have navigated the system.