Now that the dust has settled…
The first six months of this year have been a whirlwind. Between having a senior graduate from William Mason High School, welcoming 3 new council members, and reorganizing under the leadership of our new mayor Josh Strycula, there’s been a lot of moving parts and change happening in my world.
Now that it’s June, graduation is behind us, and the dust is settling a bit with city council, I thought I’d provide an update. I’d also like to hear from you about how the changes have landed for you.
Council Organization
As mentioned in my December update, the members of city council reorganized on December 1 and elected Josh Styrcula as the major and Scott Gibson as the vice mayor.
In January, Mayor Styrcula announced appointments to various commissions and boards, as well as one new committee, the America 250 committee, which will only operate this calendar year.
Members of the America 250 include Barbara Spaeth (chair), Mark Burrell, and me.
Dr. Kim Singh is the council member appointed to the Park Board.
Vice mayor Scott Gibson and Barbara Spaeth sit on the Planning Commission.
Josh Styrcula and Scott Gibson sit on the Veterans Board.
Murali Swamy represents the city on the Warren County Municipal League.
Committees
Why do we not have all those committees anymore? This is a question I’ve been asked repeatedly the last few months. Confession: I tried to record a video with my fellow councilmember Scott Gibson about this topic, but I am not a great video editor and couldn’t get a good version that was simple and short. So, you get a written explanation.
Two big things are behind this change, and both are related to council dynamics.
First, when only 3 members of council sit on a committee and work on those topics, the rest of council isn’t part of the discussions taking place. Even with committee reports shared in our council meetings, it was impossible to convey everything the other council members needed to understand. Remember the old game of telephone and how passing a message through people changes the message? This was happening, and it caused some real conflict at times.
By eliminating committees and replacing them with more frequent “special meetings” or as we refer to them, “work sessions,” all 7 of us can hear and discuss information at the same time. Our hope - and this is still a test in process - is that working this way will prevent some of those disagreements from causing issues as we try to keep things moving forward.
Second, committees and committee assignments have been weaponized by mayors and council members in the past. If a mayor didn’t like a council member, they might assign that person to a less desirable committee - one that doesn’t meet or doesn’t handle “important” decisions. If a council member had a pet project or was unhappy about something, they might bring that topic up in a committee, whether it related to the committee or not, and try to work on it there. This caused conflict and issues as well
By reducing the number of committees and working as a council of 7, we’re hoping to eliminate this weaponization of committees. In place of committees, we’re meeting every other month for special meetings that we refer to as work sessions.
Work Sessions
It has taken us a bit to get into a rhythm, and it’s still not really there, but our goal is to meet every other month on the 4th Monday for a special meeting of council that we’re treating as a work session. We met in February, April, and June so far. (We changed the date of the June meeting and made it an executive session, which means it was not open to the public. The date was changed so that all 7 of us could attend. As I said, this new schedule is still a bit clunky.)
In those work sessions, we have discussed topics like the MADE CDC’s grant to work on the downtown master plan, various downtown events and activities like the Market on the Mile and East Main Music Fest, the Mason Arts Alliance’s fundraising efforts for a performing arts center, and the capital improvement plan.
We expect that both downtown events and project and citywide capital improvement projects will be a frequent topic for these work sessions.
A Seat at the Table
I have long felt that council members need to make it easier for residents to talk to us. It’s intimidating to go to a council meeting and speak during the recognition of visitors! You have to go up to a podium, speak into a microphone on camera, give your name and address, and you have a time limit.
I talked with our city manager during the winter about some kind of less formal yet organized way for us to make ourselves available. Together with staff, we came up with the idea of “A Seat at the Table” where 2 council members and a city staff member plan to be at a specified location at a particular date and time for residents to stop by and say hello. The idea is a casual setting where you can come and meet us, ask questions, share ideas, and let us know about concerns. No agenda, no formality - just a seat at the table for a bit.
We’ve done 3 of these so far and have more scheduled in July. I hope that you will come by one and say hello! The full schedule and locations are here.
Council Meeting Updates
I’ve been trying something new the last few months. I go live on Facebook a day or two before each council meeting and talk through the agenda - what we’re recognizing, what we’re voting on, and any public hearings we have planned. I haven’t been as consistent on posting follow-ups after the meeting, since we generally pass everything on the agenda.
June Council meeting preview video here in case the video embed below doesn’t work for you!
Is this helpful and interesting to you? Would you like me to share the videos via this newsletter too, or is knowing you can find them on my Facebook page sufficient? What else would be helpful?
Construction Updates
Did you know we have a website that provides information about all active projects in Mason?
Project Mason - current and upcoming construction projects by the city
