Committee of Whole Meeting 9/20

I attended the COW meeting on Monday 9/21.

It was a learning experience to say the least. I was pleased to see this meeting get set. It took multiple years which is a problem, but having the meeting was a small breakthrough. Kudos to Dennis for seeing it through.

Now the unfortunate part. I saw firsthand the way heavy-handed politics run our Village: "Ram it Home". Nearly 40 people were lined up, all on message: roundabouts are bad. It was like some unknown force convinced them to attend and speak up. It's really a shame because the approx 1% of the Village population who showed up did not represent the views of the Village. I could easily line up 15 people at each of the next 10 Council meetings and have them say just about anything. Result: slow but real opinion shift by Council. No one's immune to messaging impressions (P&G sells a lot of soap employing the tactic). But I have and will continue to choose the high road. But I may eventually call individuals out on it.

Issues with the meeting
-Columbia Township was excluded. The information that was required to meet in the first place was directly omitted from the meeting
-misinformation. Rotaries are not Roundabouts. Accidents do not uniquely define safety. Grants could easily lower the costs further than estimated. Police Officer funding (General Fund) is different than Police Cruiser funding (Permanent Improvement Fund) and these pots of money don't mix unless it's an emergency (new learning that it's even possible to mix).
-Missing the point of the renderings. It called out what is possible, and nothing more. No engineering was done. No land was purchased, no commitments were made. It was an idea
-getting Mocked. While quiet, it was noticeable hard to bear. And I was and am still bothered by it. Thick skin be damned, I don't have any interest in changing to be that guy who can brush it off.
-regardless of Dan's promise of Grant Writing in the Village, meaningful large scale grants will never be written in the Village until/if we hire that skillset


Back to the good
-Citizens fair points. Among them: pedestrian safety and high speed vs low speed intersections situatinos.
-Andy had a nice idea of a counter proposal to engage Col Twp on a lower cost red of that intersection. Not sure if they would be interested.
-there is Citizen energy for revamping the hist district. I don't know where that time and energy will come from, but I sincerely appreciate the initial engagement. I hope to partner on some meaningful change in our most important neighborhood.

In the end, I was outvoted 5-1 which I absolutely respect. We will not engage on the Roundabout. More importantly, though, we've got to operate better. Last night was not the way Mariemont ought to run.

Deep breath. Now back to trying to improve my Village.


Cortney