Editorial

Policy shift

The new Gray Town Council had said that they wanted to be efficient. They wanted less government, to streamline things. They wanted to 'get stuff done.' At Tuesday's meeting, they demonstrated that they need to re-shift their focus if they are to come anywhere close to those goals.

Over the last few years, with previous Councils, I have noticed an increasing penchant for policy, regulation, and complicated rules that get in the way of getting stuff done. The previous Council happily basked in the sludgy morass that creation of more ordinances, policies, and rules always engenders.

The Mass Gathering Ordinance, Sidewalk Ordinance, Telecommunications Ordinance, new BOCA rules, additions to town-wide Zoning, new Fees and Fines schedules and many more items were new regulations or additions to current ones that were put into place under their, and the Manager's, tenure.

Remember, each time a new policy or ordinance is put into place it takes someone to interpret, manage, and implement it. To periodically review it. That means more staff. More government. More dissent as differing interpretations arise. More appeals through the regulatory mechanisms to settle those interpretations.

The new Council was going to cut through the red tape, limit the expanding bureaucracy, and streamline Gray into a working machine.

They've been so good up to now.

Example: The new Council has been advised by the Manager that they need to work on the following policies:

--Freedom of Access Policy and Procedures
--Internet Policy for all
--Fees and Charges Review
--Growth Management Policy/Ordinance
--Incompatibility of Office/Ethics Policy related

And that's just this week's work schedule.

Couple the creation of more policies with the embarrassing and painful exhibit that was Tuesday night's regular meeting. More than once the Council was caught short with needing to complete a procedure but not knowing their Rules or the Charter well enough to do so. Manager Mitchell A. Berkowitz said twice that they should refer to Robert's Rules but the Council has not adopted Robert's Rules, they rely on their own Council Rules. It is important for Manager, and the Council, to know which set of rules to turn to when procedure bogs down. It is important to understand what those rules say so when the time comes, leaders can act clearly and concisely.

The balance needs to be shifted away from making policy to acting. Policy creation is a way to escape making decisions. And why create more policy when it was evident that the Council does not know their own guiding rules well enough to implement actions when it counts? The Council needs to decide if they are going to escape decision making through incessant policy creation and periodic review or if they will act as leaders act, decisively. Will they will become mired in the morass that has bogged down their predecessors? Only they can decide what kind of Council they want to be when they grow up.

Editorial by Elizabeth Prata
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