The monthly monologue is sometimes funny, sometimes serious and sometimes just there to make the deadline. Click on any of the months below to find out which rationale drove the monologue for that month. The most recent monologue can be found below.
Elected Officials:
It's easy for public officials to blame elected officials whenever, they fail to approve the latest hot idea or cave to public pressure. That public pressure shouldn't be underestimated, however. You might think it's easy to just listen to the facts and then approve whatever the staff proposes because it's so well thought out. It's not that easy. Teenagers tend to think everything's easier than it is so what better group to test the effect of public pressure.
When I worked for the City of Vancouver, a local service group sponsored a youth in government day. Bright young high school students spent the day with city or county officials and then concluded with a mock city council meeting. Staff members spent a few minutes training the students for their respective roles as council, staff or citizen members. They were given real action items that had already been heard and decided by the city council. As council members they could vote however they pleased and as citizens they could make whatever arguments they chose. They always did a great job but I noticed that they did something that real councils do as well. They deferred action on items that had passionate public testimony. They didn't have to. This was just pretend. They could have voted on every item and let the chips fall where they may because the chips were pretend chips. Even with no consequences, they felt the public pressure.
I experienced the same thing myself when I conducted a public hearing for a legislative study committee in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Nobody in the town knew us and when we were done, we would leave, never to return. Yet as citizens came forward and made their arguments and their request, we tried to find a way to give them what they wanted. The logical side of me says we were just trying to be fair and reasonable. The side of me that remembers how I felt that night says we didn't want to make them unhappy and could feel the pressure.
So the next time things don't go your way, try to put yourself in the elected decision-maker's shoes and ask yourself it you would have done the same thing.