Mad Dogs and Englishmen 

          Following from the two previous community lessons, is it madness to suggest that we not go to city-council meetings because our city councilors are too busy?  If we remember from the essay “From History to Hysteria”, we see that we have been inculcated with a secular faith. This secular faith tells us that it is our civic duty to attend city-council meetings.  But, to put it candidly, we live a fantasy when we embrace our secular faith, because it is not the best use of our time to attend city-council meetings.  This is not to say that city business would be unimportant;  rather, it is to say that we, the residents, could spend our time more productively, even when our priority overlap with city business.  

          So, how do we use our time more productively? 

          We could put an initiative on the ballot for Montebello to become a charter city with a much larger city council.  If the city council were larger, we would have more city councilors.  The workload would be spread and attending city-council meetings would be a good use of our time. 

          Are there activities which take less time, that is, activities which would not require putting an initiative on the ballot?  If Montebello commissions were enlarged to enable more residents to participate and the commissions were given budgets to take care of community issues, that would be better than burdening an overburdened city council. 

          An interesting possibility is for the city council to create a community chest and invite residents to manage the fund, discussing and deciding according to resident priorities.  The value of this possibility could be heightened if each neighborhood elected a person to represent it in the “community assembly” managing the fund, while at the same time any resident, youth or adult, could attend meetings of the community chest and speak on possible disbursements.  (Note that we could fit at least one hundred fifty people in the council chamber at city hall, and the Montebello Park band shell would have seating for several hundred.  The possibility of an elected resident representing five hundred or fewer neighbors, enabling the resident to have frequent contact with those whom she represents, makes it possible to turn Montebello into a shining example for improving American democracy.) 

If you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in 2007 by a local nonprofit organization. 

1.    Our belief about the proper functioning of democracy

(a)   is based on a secular faith.

(b)   does not enable us to use our time most productively. 

2.   What options do we have which do not require putting an initiative on the ballot?

(a) Our city council increases the size and authority of Montebello commissions, and gives them a budget.

(b) Our city council creates a community chest managed by residents.

(c)  We the residents create a community chest, fund it with other than city funds, and manage it. 

August 9, 2007