Over the years I have been to hundreds of public meetings. Some leave me inspired, others make me downright cranky.

What follows are three recent examples that left me not only a crank but, as you will see, something of a scold.

Forgive me, but I feel these things, need to be pointed out.

It's hard enough to get the public involved in local issues without making participation more difficult than it needs to be.

But some organizations often do exactly that.

Here are those three recent local examples:

On March 9, the Steering Committee of the Southwest Corridor Plan called an open meeting to consider numerous options for improved mass transit through Hillsdale.

Oddly, the meeting was held at the Tigard Library. Why not in or near  Hillsdale? We have plenty of sizable places that aren't being used between 9 a.m.and 11 a.m. on a Monday morning. Churches, synagogues, the Multnomah Arts Center, the Mittleman Jewish Community Center come to mind.

As the public entered the large meeting room, they found rows of chairs arranged so that the steering committee members had their backs to the audience. The arrangement was both uninviting and unwelcoming.

We all faced a large screen and were addressed by planners from a distance. We  could have been seated so that we could all easily hear and see each other.

And hearing was an issue. Initially, the microphone didn't work. The audience couldn't hear the discussion among committee members, who, by the way, were largely elected officials presumably knowledgeable about the need to communicate.

Finally a technician fixed the microphone....but the committee didn't use it.

I complained after to the Steering Committee's co-chair, Metro Councilor Bob Stacey. He said the custodian had arranged the chairs. I suggested that the co-chairs take charge of arrangements at future meetings and that participants be urged to use the microphone. He duly noted my complaint and took a sketch I had made of an open, inviting seating arrangement.

Worse was a meeting on March 26 of the Food Front board held at the Hyatt Express Hotel on Vaughn Street. This time the chairs reserved for owner/members faced the three-person board seated on the right but angled to the front away from the audience. The co-operative's managers  were on the left also angled to the front. Facing the owners. the board and the managers from the front of the room was a facilitator, who played a minor role but was the easiest to hear.

There was no microphone and the board spoke in tones only they and the managers could hear, even after two in the audience asked them to speak up.

The great irony here is that the board is supposed to represent Food Front owner interests, but the content of the meeting lacked real substance and clarity except for the barely audible interim general manager's report. The ten owners present were barred from asking questions to the board during deliberations, but were given time at the end of the 45-minute meeting to make one-minute comments.

At the end of the alloted minute, each owner was abruptly cut off. The board felt no obligation to respond. Because its members have agreed to "speak with one voice," and not individually. They presumably must first confer to decide what they will agree to say.

When the Food Front board changes later this year, its new members should get rid of board-imposed muzzling.

After the meeting, I again complained, this time to the facilitator who said she would pass along to the board my suggestions for improvement.

Finally there's the matter of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association. Here the problem isn't leadership of the HNA. It has been efficient, open and inviting under the presidency of Mikal Apenes. Sure, the chairs could be arranged to reflect a board-member unity of purpose. I suggest a circle, but I can live with the usual "U" configuration that has the presiding president and recording secretary at the front.

No, this time the problem is with a change under consideration for how the HNA makes decisions. For as long as I've been attending these monthly meetings, HNA has allowed those who meet certain minimal requirements of past attendance to vote. The HNA's powers are largely advisory but occasionally a resolution will be passed which is fired off to the appropriate city official to express praise or displeasure.

The by-laws say you become a member with voting rights "by attending and registering at two HNA meetings within any consecutive two-year period."

But now that could change under revised by-laws being considered. The revisions would allow only elected board members to vote. As is often the case, the change is necessitated by legalities involving formal lines of responsibility and liability insurance.

So be it, but I would urge the by-laws committee to preserve the power of members to decide the neighborhood's course. Revisions could  simply say the board will, on all occasions, affirm the will of the majority of members present at the meeting.

So here is my cranky, scolding conclusion: if leaders truly value public involvement, they need to allow it, indeed encourage it. Think,, inclusive by-laws, seating arrangements and microphones.

As always, they, and we, should expect and insist on civility, clarity and courtesy.

Rick Seifert
Editor

Editor:

As a business owner of 40 years in Hillsdale and president of the Hillsdale Business and Professional Association, I want to thank Holly Jarvis for having had the courage and skill to open the Food Front Hillsdale store.

She and her team brought a vacant anchor store back to life after 10 long months of darkness just as the Great Recession began.

Please join me in paying
tribute to Holly, as she retires as Food Front's general manager, by shopping early and often at the Hillsdale Food Front store, "your local grocer."
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