This election, citizens asked for further steps towards a more transparent government and better enabling citizens to be more informed participants in decisions facing the city council.  Here’s a step:

Beginning with last night’s meeting, all the supporting documentation for agenda items that city council members receive in their packets prior to a meeting are now available to citizens via download in PDF format here.  This information can include staff and commission reports, contracts, maps and schematics, and more.

So, rather than a one- or two-page agenda, citizens can - prior to the meeting - review the details and documentation placed in the hands of their elected officials.  This information was previously on display, and will remain on display, in the halls of the Municipal Building. 

For last night’s meeting, the file contains 125 pages of additional information that provides context and background for discussion like this one. 

Look for the next meeting’s information towards the end of next week.  I encourage the media, bloggers, and citizens to use this as a primary source of information moving forward.  I hope it allows people to answer many factual questions on their own and ultimately result in an even more constructive community conversation moving forward.

As is posted on the agenda for the upcoming Harrisonburg City Council meeting on Tuesday (7pm 409 South Main St), the council will consider the sale of the former Harrisonburg Police Department property to Rosetta Stone.  The consideration of this sale has sparked a lot of healthy and constructive conversation about the direction of downtown Harrisonburg, including an online dialogue at HBurgNews.com, which raises a number of relevant questions in a rather constructive manner.

For this decision, there will be a public hearing.  That means when we reach that agenda item, we will open the floor for the public.  People are invited to come in front of the city council and comment for or against the proposed sale. 

Public hearings are an important part of our local decision-making process, and very often few people show up to participate.  I hear from many people that they would like to see more participation in the decisions facing the direction of the city, and sharing opinions at a public hearing is great opportunity to do just that.  I invite you to come and share your opinion about what to consider in this sale.

I believe this is a valuable opportunity for the city for a number of reasons.  I support incentivizing and supporting a locally-grown business when its track record suggests its ability to successfully fulfill a pledge of 100 new jobs.   Having jobs of this type in the heart of downtown is a tremendous asset towards continuing the downtown revitalization, and should be a boon to downtown living and working.  Putting available property back into the private sector is preferable to me, in general, especially with a commitment to add $500,000 in improvements.  The combined increased property taxes and spending will make up for the lower sales price in the short term.  Long-term considerations about the future growth and expansion of services, like the jail, should be considered, as many have pointed out.  It is my judgment at this time that this project aligns with the economic and smart growth goals for the city, is properly located according to the Comprehensive Plan, and does not unduly compromise future needs of providing government services.

Whether you agree or not with my assessment, I again encourage your input.  If you agree, remember every decision needs at least three votes, so you can share your agreement with me and the other council members.  If you don’t agree, I’ve shared with you some of my thinking above and hope it helps provide you a little insight to what I’m valuing at the moment and what an effective counter-argument would need to address.

If attending Tuesday’s public hearing is not a possibility, individual council members can be emailed using the “Contact” links on each of our bio pages.

At 10am this morning, I was sworn in with Richard Baugh and Dave Wiens as the newest Harrisonburg city councilmembers.  After that, our first agenda item was the election of the mayor, for which I was honored to be nominated and humbly accepted.  Here are the brief words I shared immediately after the vote:

I’d like to say just a few words before moving forward.  First, I’d like to thank the citizens of Harrisonburg who participated this November in an unprecedented local election.  I’d like to thank every candidate in the race for their past and continued contributions to our community, and for the positive campaigns they ran.  And I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank the hundreds of people that helped get out to thousands of people our message of smart growth and open government.

One of the most frequently asked questions for people wanting a more open government is what reasoning an elected official used to make a particular decision.  I figure the best way to do that is to tell why I voted how I did.  The first decision I had was whether to accept the nomination for mayor.

Well, just as I was honored on Election Day that such a majority of citizens considered our message of getting more people involved in our local democratic process, I’m honored to have been considered by my fellow councilman for mayor.   What emerged for me as the most important consideration was that the mayorship brings a unique opportunity to set the tone and expectation for our community’s conversations about how to move forward.  On the campaign trail, we spoke about wanting safe spaces for respectful and spirited dialogue, deliberation, and debate – and given the ceremonial aspect to the job and that it earns you a few extra evening calls from Jeff Mellot – the mayor has a great chance to set that tone.  While I’ll have a lot to learn in a short amount amount of time, I’m definitely ready to advocate for the civil discourse that will allow for the constructive clash of ideas that is what makes democracy work, and lets us achieve the freedom and justive we believe democracy can provide.  

Again, I’m honored by the opportunity, and look forward to a working partnership.

With that, we’ll hear nominations for Vice Mayor.

This election was about open government and citizen participation.  Both of those are facilitated when there’s an understanding of why elected leaders make particular decisions.  Moving forward, I’ll be hearing lots of valuable opinions, ideas, and arguments and certainly intend to be an engaged listener.  The fact is I’ll have to vote, and listening and understanding won’t always mean that I make the decision everyone wants!  I’ll need to make judgements.  So, I figure the fundamental way to be open with the public is to be open about the judgements I make – that’s where you can judge whether you agree with the values I use to make the decisions.  So, WhyKai.com is here to help me explain to you why I voted certain ways.

Now, this is an experiment.  I obviously won’t have time or reason to explain every vote, nor would it be appropriate or relevant to share every reason – there are closed door sessions on personal and real estate issues, for example, that I just can’t share publicly.  I also will focus my comments keeping in mind that I intend to keep a working relationship with staff and councilmembers, and that requires a trust level that our conversations don’t all end up in the blogosphere for everyone to read.  I’m going to work to balance the amount of information I share, and that will be a learning process moving forward.

I won’t have comments activated to begin with.  To contact me, just email kai.degner@gmail.com.  There are other local blogs that I’m sure will be happy to convene the dialogue about what I write!

WhyKai.com was first created as a way to showcase voters’ answers to the question, “Why am I voting for Kai?”  Well, turns out a bunch of people had reason to vote for me, and now that I’m elected, there’s a different question this site can answer: “Why did you make that decision?” 

The old website, complete with the campaign videos, is available here.