Studer Community Institute

Shannon's Window: The meeting that never ends

March 6, 2015
/ Shannon Nickinson
/ government

Be careful what you wish for. The Pensacola City Council this year switched to once-a-month meetings. That decision seemed to follow the old rule of thumb that too many meetings are a bad thing. Well, here's where that old Chinese proverb comes in — the one about being careful what you wish for, lest you get it. The to-do list for Monday's agenda review meeting is 49 items long. See for yourself here. That is 1,032 pages of agenda info and backup material. It includes things like an interlocal agreement for cost-sharing between the City and ECUA regarding the Gaberonne Swamp sotrmwater project; the award of contracts for repairs at Pace Boulevard and Gregory Street, Osceola Golf course flood repairs, and a contract for flood remediation work at the Vickrey Center. Also up: discussions about hiring Council's staff, furnishing the City Council staff's office, a new City Attorney; a group of ordinance's that targeted panhandlers and, critics say, unfairly targeted the homeless; food trucks; a tree planting trust fund; and a texting while driving ban. Any two or three of those are enough to keep folks out of mischief for a couple of hours. The Monday meeting starts at 3:30 p.m. I hope everyone packs a snack or two, cause nobody is getting out of that meeting in time for dinner. As a citizen I'm worried. No one makes good government on an empty stomach or in the middle of a 1,000-page agenda. Truth be told, my worry is grounded in what I remember about the old days. Of School Board meetings in the Hal Mason-Vannette Webb era that lasted until the wee small hours of the morning. Of County Commission meetings in the W.D. Childers-Willie Junior when all the real deals, including the old soccer complex purchase, went down after the nightly news deadline had passed. Love 'em or hate 'em, politicians are people, too. Who among us could honestly say they would read 1,032 pages of government documents, in addition to the other duties tied to our jobs and our families, and keep all of it at the front of our minds? Who ever thought we'd think of twice monthly meetings as the good old days?

Back to Blogs

Shannon's Window: The meeting that never ends

Recent Posts