The Grass is Not Always Greener on the Other Side 

          Do you tire of the capricious and conspicuous caviling to which we are exposed by those who would pontificate from their paper pulpits?  (Okay, enough, but don’t you love the “malleability” of English?) 

          In other words, if somebody read the dread which came by letter carriers to our mailboxes, and to our driveways and curbs by those who would test their pitching arms, she or he would think that Montebello city hall were a den of inequity ready for a divine cleansing. 

          Interestingly, on the front page of the Montebello Comet of August 2, 2007, we read “City Searching for a New Manager”.  ‘Not again!’ we think.  No, not again, because we continue reading: 

          Monterey Park’s [emphasis mine] perennially divided city council is on the lookout for a new city manager, after former city manager Chris Jeffers left last month for the city manager’s seat in Glendora. … Monterey Park has a 3-2 split council, [long-time councilmember Frank] Venti said.  Jeffers would often ignore his and one other          councilmember’s minority opinions in favor of those of the other three councilmembers, he said.  “I’m looking for a city manager who can           count to five…the previous city manager did whatever three of the councilmembers [a majority] wanted,” Venti said. … 

          Montebello is not unique in its problems.  Either there is nothing wrong or there is something fundamentally wrong with democracy as presently practiced across the U.S.  Might it be that democracy would be retarded, would atrophy, whenever so few people—five city councilors, five county supervisors, one hundred twenty state legislators, four hundred thirty-five members of Congress—made decisions to the exclusion of, respectively, tens of thousands, millions, tens of millions, and hundreds of millions of people? 

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.    Montebello

(a)   is an exception to what takes place in America.

(b)   is a microcosm of America. 

2.    The problem with Montebello might lie

(a)   in the lack of shared decision-making, that is, the lack of a large number of people having a substantive say in decisions about our neighborhoods.

(b)   in the structure of democracy as practiced presently.

(c)   in the lack of accurate news about what takes place at city hall. 

August 16, 2007