A Failure To Communicate
3/13/08 – “What
we’ve got here is failure to communicate”
from “Cool
Hand Luke” (1967 Warner
Bros).
I don’t
talk much here about my day job (not at all yet) where communicating
effectively can be the difference, literally, between life and death.I’ve been on both sides of that: from being the voice heard that
saved a life or lives, or the last one to hear someone else’s voice on this
mortal coil.That’s all that
needs to be said about that, but know I’m not exaggerating.The importance of communication cannot be understated.
Where I
may slightly differ from the general public is what I consider
effective communication.In my case the message must be understood (and confirmed) or
communication did not take place.For the rest of society, it’s not so dire. Effective communicating
can just be making a good speech, or writing a good article with little to
no concern in how it’s received or understood.For the purposes of this article, I’m talking about a
two-way street.(And yes, I know what
“dialogue” is, just couldn’t slip in this “Cool Hand Luke” reference with it.)
I spoke at
the 3/4/08
LongmontCity
Council meeting about campaign
finance.Councilmember
Brian Hansen, in the only
comment or response to anything I’ve said, mischaracterized my comments.He said “I know one person
said something to the effect that we just are looking this
after our latest election and
that’s not actually true.We
did look at this before that, and so we’re not trying to target anybody in
that regard.”Either he has
a bad memory or doesn’t listen well.Earlier when I spoke, and I said this clearly and looking right at
council as it wasn’t part of my prepared remarks, “I
heard about this before the
January election, about campaign finance.”
The other
ironic thing is that on January 11th(which would also be
before the special election) I
sent all the councilmembers an email about campaign rules.To her credit, Karen Benker
responded quickly to this email.Unfortunately, around the same time during a council meeting, she
made the campaign rules personal against then candidate
Gabe Santos.She paid the price for those comments by a lambasting by residents
during the January 29th
council meeting, and rightly so.How Mr. Hansen could forget that episode, which clearly showed people
heard Ms. Benkers campaign finance opinions
before the latest election, is
beyond me.
As some of
you may remember, I had a problem with a recent confusing vote for a board
applicant.I wrote a very fair
and friendly letter to Mr. Hansen, not an “open letter”, not sent to the
Times-Call, not sent to all of
the other council members, about his vote, or mis-vote, whichever the case
may be.Considering we heard
about how these new members would be so
open and listening to their
constituents, and that I made it clear in this letter I was willing to give
him the benefit of the doubt, all I got back was
silence.No, worse than silence, I
got my comments twisted by my wards councilmember.
My
previous ward’s councilmember, Doug
Brown, who I didn’t always agree with on policy, never played this game
with me or anyone I know who had dealings with him.I never expect a response
when I write elected officials, it’s the main reason I do my “communicating”
to them through websites and letters to the editor.At least Mr. Brown had the common decency to not misrepresent my
words publicly, but also went the extra effort to call, email, or want to
get together to discuss the issues.Perhaps he set the bar too
high for any of his successors to live up to.
This
behavior is very disappointing, and elected officials shouldn’t expect to
enjoy endless benefit of the doubt.It has its limits.I
asked for some inkling that there wasn’t this “bloc” mentality, and while
silence alone may not have been
enough to convince the true believers,
what he did sealed the deal for
me.
There
is a “bloc”,
and they aren’t all great listeners.Deal with it.
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