“A Modest Proposal”

The original “A Modest Proposal” was written by the great satirist Jonathan Swift in 1729. Today, most people only know his most famous story, Gulliver’s Travels, and they don’t even recognize the satire in it. Swift was actually pointing out that wars are often fought for the most insane reasons. The two warring parties of tiny people in Gulliver’s Travels were fighting and dying over which end of a soft boiled egg to break.

In “A Modest Proposal” – subtitled, “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick” – advocated “selling their children as food to the elite”. My proposal is even more modest.

Why does Springdale have a Planning Commission?

I served on Springdale’s Planning Commission for over six years. Initially, I was ready and willing to do my part. Today, I would not feel the same way.

My answer to the question is, “Because Utah state law requires municipalities to have a planning authority.” A municipality doesn’t have to use a citizen commission for planning decisions as we do in Springdale. We used to have a citizen arbitration authority but the Town Council, in their infinite wisdom, hired a lawyer to do that kind of work. I don’t want to re-hash that decision, but I will point out that it put actual citizens one step further from actual authority over their own government.

State law does not tell municipalities how to operate their planning authority. They just have to have one. Springdale, with great pomp and flourishes, requires people to submit their proposals to a citizen Planning Commission and then report the results to the Town Council for a decision.

Notice what is missing here: Any authority for the Planning Commission whatsoever over the final result.

Does the Planning Commission Matter … At All?

Elizabeth has documented the controversy over Springdale’s decision to pass the “Workforce Housing Overlay Zone”. This article isn’t going to take sides on that, but I will quote one fact that stood out for me. The Planning Commission voted against it, but the Town Council passed it. I mentioned that to candidates at the recent “Meet the Candidates” night and several volunteered other cases where the same thing happened. The bottom line is that it simply does not actually matter what the Planning Commission decides. The Town Council can overrule them and not even explain why. Put more bluntly, the Planning Commission is a toothless non-entity when it comes to deciding what is good for Springdale.

I used to argue this point to a previous mayor (whose first name rhymes with “the MAN!”) when I was publishing a website similar to Elizabeth’s newsletter. His argument boiled down to, “If you don’t like it, run for Town Council.” That misses the point. Do we want citizens who DON’T want to commit to the burdens of the Town Council to be totally ignored? That’s the way Springdale is headed. I’ve heard that it’s not too easy to recruit people for the Planning Commission these days. Could this be part of the reason? Inquiring Minds Want To Know.

The reverse of my argument makes sense too. If the Planning Commission has the authority, then why would we need a Town Council? What we need is a blend that keeps everyone “in the loop”.

Years ago, in an incident that was prominent in my own decision, I recall a developer who made a multi-million dollar proposal to the Planning Commission. We considered it carefully and then voted it down. The developer was enraged and vowed before God and the Planning Commission not to give up. And he didn’t. A few weeks later, he presented a completely changed proposal to the Town Council who thought it was just peachy and passed it. I was in “the audience” (seen, but not heard), But in that context, the Chairman of the Planning Commission is just another observer. It was my turn to be enraged, but my only choice was to sit quietly and listen.

There are ways to provide citizen input and “checks and balance” to the process without destroying the authority of the Town Council to govern. Here is my modest proposal..

• 1. Require EXACTLY THE SAME proposals to be presented to both the Planning Commission and the Town Council. No mulligans. Changes are fine, but then the proposal has to go back to the Planning Commission for reconsideration. Several candidates I talked to about this said, “But, but, but … We do that anyway.” Ummmmmmmm …. Not always. Besides, it isn’t a rule. It’s just good policy … and all it takes is for an authoritarian to decide that they can do what they want. It should be a rule.
• 2. Give the Chairman of the Planning Commission (or a delegate) an official voice in Town Council for proposals that the Planning Commission has considered. That’s “a voice”, not “a vote”. I would have LOVED the opportunity to point out what the Town Council at the time was doing.
• 3. If the Town Council does reverse a Planning Commission decision, then the Council’s ruling will not take effect until a written explanation for the decision is published. Notice that I’m not asking for any specific content in the explanation. If it’s garbage, then I believe in democracy enough to trust people to see that.

Modest enough for you?

But here’s another thing. Legislators and administrators are FAMOUS for simply refusing to answer questions. In my website, the BIGGEST problem I had was that nobody in Springdale’s government would respond to plain, legitimate questions that I asked … in a “public and accountable” way. “The MAN” who was mayor at the time was always happy and helpful in person. But he would never put it in print. That’s a clear sign that we’re on the fabled “slippery slope”. There should be some way to “encourage” (dare I use a stronger word) elected officials to put their point of view IN PRINT when asked.