Scheduled and Unscheduled Communications at Fresno City Council Meetings

People are interesting. Watching people exercise their democratic right to petition their local government is particularly interesting.

The Fresno City Council provides the opportunity for the public to address the council each week during a Scheduled and Unscheduled Communication period on the agenda. Scheduled Communications is for anyone providing the City Clerk with his/her name and the subject to be addressed prior to the agenda's release. Unscheduled Communications is reserved for anyone without a pre-scheduled appointment to address the council. While the council cannot act on public comments during the Scheduled or Unscheduled agenda period, it can refer the issue to staff or take it under advisement.

There is no question that citizen input to elected officials is the correct thing to do. During my eight years on the council, I was quite impressed with some of the opinions and ideas that were brought to the council each week during the Scheduled and Unscheduled Communications portion of the agenda. I must also admit there were some very unusual petitioners who appeared before the council, and some unusual comments were made. I was reminded of this recently during Unscheduled Communications, when I made some recommendations for improving Fresno's FAX public transportation system (I am a long-time FAX bus rider). Other speakers also addressed the council and I refer to them below.

The first Scheduled Communications speaker implored the council to, it would seem, fix all the problems facing mankind. It was an impassioned, albeit confusing, discourse on problems from California to Somalia. The second speaker asked to have marijuana legalized for everyone. The first Unscheduled Communications speaker was certain that jet contrails in the sky were a deliberate attempt to poison the world, and the council should do something about it. Next came a "regular" (speaks at every council meeting) lamenting growth in northwest Fresno. He was followed by another "regular couple" decrying the lack of fire stations in their neighborhood. A student from Fresno City College then asked the council to attend a press conference requesting financial assistance for community college students. Finally, the "regular of all regulars" complained about everything the council had done since last week's council meeting when she had complained about the previous week's council actions, and ....

There are times when elected officials, particularly at the local level, wonder why they ran for office. Their high expectations to "make a difference in the community" often fades in the face of the day-to-day "public service" of listening to problems. The old saw about democracy being messy is correct.

The irony of it all is that after eight years as a council member listening to others, here I was during Unscheduled Communications taking my turn at the lectern and microphone, facing the council and pushing my special agenda, in this case public transportation. Now somebody else had to decide if I had anything important to say.

Coming Soon. . .

1. Street-legal golf carts in Fresno: Give them the green light!
2. An update on your local community college.
3. Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey?

Comments are welcome. Click on "Comments" below or e-mail me at abriancalhoun@gmail .com.