The Candidate Posts - Part III

What I Want...

is a say in what SPI will look like in 5-10-25 years... because I plan on being here at least that long! I want this bad enough that I was willing to give up almost every Tuesday night for nearly two years to go duke it out with the other members of the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee.

CPAC was a really interesting experience. I have to hand it to the board that created us -- I think they did an amazing job of deciding who should serve on this committee by handpicking a group seemingly chosen for the amount of suspicion and hostility to which we were likely to be predisposed for one another. The first meeting was in many ways a disaster. (In fact, the committee collectively requested that a photo shot that night be struck from the final document -- the memory was just that unpleasant.) Several members quit fairly early on -- I very nearly did but am glad I did not because I was able to witness an amazing transformation first hand. This group of people with completely different agendas sat down face to face on a weekly basis. We interrupted and we rolled our eyes and we threw up our hands and buried our faces, but we also took turns telling our small stories and describing the SPI of our dreams and at some point we started listening -- really listening -- to one another. And we were able to reach consensus and complete our assignment. Our last meeting was the antitheses of our first: a purely social potluck with spouses at Clayton’s amazing beach home where a good time was had by all.

(Of course it’s not all unicorns and rainbows and feel-good Obama stuff. Writing by committee is my idea of hell. There is stuff in that plan that makes me wince -- but hey, nobody wins every fight. The key of course is picking your battles carefully; knowing when to say, “I will not vote for something that weakens this statement” and when to say “all right, whatever, let’s move on.”)

I really wouldn’t have believed it possible had I not witnessed it for myself. And that makes me think that what worked in the microcosm of CPAC could work towards uniting the various factions at odds in the town.

While it is not practical to propose that the whole town gather weekly for a cozy little boardoom chat to discuss our real feelings, there are ways we can use the internet and new city hall’s fancy high-tech gadgetry to open the lines of communication.

Next: Harnessing the Power of the Island Brain Trust

The Last CPAC "Meeting"

Members of the SPI Comprehensive Advisory Committee gathered one last time at member Clayton Brashear's home to celebrate the completion of our report -- nearly two years after we started work on it. Members were joined by their spouses, staff members Cate Ball (+ baby Tony) and Jason Moody and alderpersons Kirk Mills and Tara Rios Ybarra.

Any time you put this many diverse personalities and visions of what the future of South Padre Island ought to look like together, you are going to get a --- certain amount of conflict. Over the past two years I have learned a lot about city planning, about designing buildings and pedestrian-friendly walkways and running a restaurant and legal jargon and native plants and etc. and etc. But more importantly, I learned that even in this group consensus could be reached when people were willing to listen and respond to each other's concerns with respect and courtesy. (Something I wish those people over on the SPI forum would get around to figuring out.)

Thanks to Clayton for hosting this gathering in his lovely home. Thanks to Cate and Jason for sticking with us through the whole process and being so giving of their evenings. And finally, thanks to all my fellow committee members for their time, their expertise and their willingness to listen. I really feel like we have established something of a bond over the past two years...

I only hope the town's residents will approach this document with an open mind.

Negative Negative Negative!

The current hot topic on the South Padre Island Forum (SPIF) regarding the Comprehensive Plan Advisory committee - of which I am a member - is good for a few laughs. The Nattering Nabobs of Negativity are already attempting to poison the baby before they throw her out with the bath water by moaning about how the committee failed to use the vaguely-worded, silly vision statement they were handed some 1.5 years ago. Nevermind that the bulk of the document -- and it is indeed bulky -- fully supports and enhances the earlier work completed on this project by the focus groups in which many of the members of CPAC participated.

What they won’t tell you is that the two loudest voices on that thread belong to members of the BOA that appointed the members of CPAC. If they don’t like what we are doing, they - as much as anyone - are to blame. But since neither one of them has been to a meeting in a very long time -- if ever -- I think they have a lot of gall attacking us and the work we have done. (One of them [“Islander”] has even gone so far as to say in anther thread that residents’ opinions about town policies don’t count. Perhaps he thinks that tourists should be writing our Comprehensive Plan for us as well?!?)

I am also disheartened by the threats of certain CPAC members to quit before the job is done. Some are unhappy with the work of our newly-hired facilitator though we have had only one session with him. The chapter we are currently working on - Land Use - is maybe the most important one in the plan and we really need the input of all the members as well as the community at large on this one. It is o so easy to spend your Tues. evenings in front of the boob tube while complaining about the crappy job we are doing, isn’t it? And I sure can think of things I’d rather be doing as well but we are close to the end on this thing so let’s just stick to it and get it done, hey?

For the record, I like the idea of letting the voters approve or disapprove the plan by putting it on May’s ballot. Good idea, Lori!

p.s. Sam has written a pretty funny post on this subject that you should also read if you haven't already.

Wear YourTux

The regularly-scheduled Beach & Dune meeting - which would have been called today at 3 PM at the Public Works building, had it been "formal" -- didn't happen. Apparently. Nobody called and there was no agenda posted.

However. I heard from a trusted source that an "informal" beach & dune taskforce meeting to discuss dune building (which as you probably already know is a subject I hold near and dear to my heart) was indeed being held at 3 PM at Public Works. So I called PW and asked point blank if there was a meeting -- formal, informal or otherwise. I was told very specifically that there was not by the lady (I think she said her name was Mary) who answered the phone.

I hope she is right and that my trusted source is wrong. Because it really doesn't look good if committees are having "informal" meetings to which only select members are invited.

And speaking of meetings - can anyone tell me if CPAC is meeting Thursday night? I hear no, then I hear yes and I have received no official notice one way or the other. I suggest to any members who might be reading these words that perhaps we should meet - informally of course - here at my house to discuss the land usage chapter.

You can leave your tux in the closet.