A way forward for the City

Despite recent turmoil, the City of Sisters has opportunities to improve its operations and reset sometimes troubled relationships among councilors themselves and with the community at large.

It is unfortunate that Sisters is losing the services of Pauline Hardie, a capable planner who was thrust into a challenging management position and served the community diligently for seven years. In replacing the community development director, the City should seek out another capable planner who also has the management and team-building experience to rebuild the department from scratch.

The planning commission and council owes that new team clear and explicit policy direction.

Going forward, councilors must be willing to ask tough questions, challenge assumptions and push each other and staff rigorously. When seeking legal counsel, councilors should be looking for best-practices and a range of options, and not settle merely for what can be legally justified.

They must also work with each other in good faith and practice good boardsmanship. Vigorous debate and occasional split votes are good things, not things to be avoided. But once a decision is made, a councilor should respect the will of the council. The current leadership has made a commitment to ensure that no councilor feels excluded or pushed aside, and there should be no reason for frustration to lead to violations of trust among councilors.

The City's harshest critics bear a share of responsibility for the atmosphere of mistrust and anger in the local political culture.

Citizen watchdogs can be invaluable. Calling out error, bad practice and poor process is a worthy endeavor. And the City of Sisters sometimes deserves to be called out. However, assailing the character of those with whom critics are at odds, sometimes directly, often through insinuation and innuendo is not a worthy endeavor. It is corrosive and destructive.

Taking that route is a choice. It has consequences. It has caused many people to question their own willingness to enter the arena and subject themselves to relentless upbraiding that questions not just their actions but their character - especially since they are constrained by the imperatives of public service from responding as forthrightly as they might wish.

The City can improve the way it does business; its critics can change the way they do business, too. Both things need to happen for the benefit of the community.

Mayor Chris Frye said last week that "the goal of staff and this council is to improve transparency, better public outreach, engage the community, and work at ensuring good process is being followed." He continued, "As we improve in these areas, I expect the climate to change. To receive trust we first must earn trust, and we understand that takes time."

Every citizen of the Sisters community should be pulling for the council to succeed in achieving those goals. Those who want to see positive outcomes can do a service of their own: Question actions, not integrity; encourage positive actions; challenge those you disagree with while respecting the possibility that there may be more than one valid and honorable point of view.

Come to the table with a problem, sure. Try to bring along a solution, too. The volunteers who serve you could use the help.

Jim Cornelius

Editor