Jeff Morris, Attorney
♦A Victory For Citizens:
At various times over the years, city officials held meetings to discuss the Master Bike Plan, which included Statesville Blvd. Although such a plan for Statesville Blvd was not popular, bureaucrats within the city who favored the latest waste of gas-tax monies on non-transportation scheduled such meetings in the middle of the day, during the work week, where mostly city employees attended. They discussed ‘visioning’ for road-diets and forcing people out of their cars and onto greenways and bike lanes, as if sitting in artificially congested traffic would alter the behavior of commuters.
Meetings held at inaccessible hours were the ‘norm’ at the time for Salisbury. Then along came a new city manager who changed the status quo. Last fall, on Thursday August 30th, a meeting was held at Milford Hills Methodist Church in the evening, to review the bureaucrats’ crowning achievement, a “Road Diet Plan” for Statesville Blvd. Finally a forum was held at a time and location that was reasonably accessible to the citizens who would have to live with whatever plan emerged. Despite years of planning by the previous city administration, which included a vocal minority of attendees who supported turning the boulevard into a three-lane road, including a center turn lane and dedicated bike lanes on both sides, at the August 30th meeting, citizens—not merely bureaucrats—were able to have meaningful input. And it was the State, not the city bureaucrats, who had the final say in the outcome of the road plan.
As citizens arrived at the meeting, city bureaucrats carefully divided them into groups led by ‘true believers’—in a manipulative technique called the ‘Delphi’ method. The Delphi leaders were trained to make sure anyone who spoke up against the road diet were embarrassed as ‘naysayers’, or questioned as being against ‘progress’. But the citizens had been informed of the Delphi techniques in advance, and as they heard the Delphi’ers practically read from the written materials the citizens had been given in advance, the citizens stood their ground. They even called the bureaucrats on the manipulative techniques the bureaucrats were employing. Yes, most of the 80+ citizens who attended this meeting were mad as heck.
I dispute the idea that the city didn’t care about citizens’ concerns. After a number of years planning a “road diet” with a median, only two traffic lanes and two bike lanes, last fall, citizens showed up en masse, in opposition to changing Statesville Blvd’s design. It was not the City that ultimately made the decisions on this ‘state’ road’s future design. It was the State, who listened to the overwhelming majority of those 80 citizens’ input’ ditched the ‘road diet’ plan; repaved the road instead. If anything, I would applaud the City Manager for scheduling the meeting at an appropriate time and place to have afforded the citizens who use Statesville Blvd an opportunity to be heard…. and those changed plans were not popular. There were a number of city employees who were outraged that the citizens had shown up and spoken out, changing years of bureaucratic manipulating. Bureaucrats abhor citizen input of the kind they got served up last August 30th. They especially abhor citizens calling them on their “Delphi” techniques. Admirably, City Manager Doug Paris appears to have put a stop on the use of the Delphi technique of manipulating citizen input. And he should be congratulated for making government more transparent in that respect.
Local residents Will McCubbins and Melanie Earle were in attendance at that meeting and summarized it here:
http://rowanfreepress.com/2012/09/11/letters-to-the-editor-city-staffers-used-delphi-technique-at-statesville-blvd-bike-meeting/
More information on the Delphi technique may be found here:
http://rowanfreepress.com/2012/09/06/the-delphi-technique-city-employs-manipulative-method-at-statesville-blvd-meeting/
