Recently, voters and the public at large have had opportunities for their voices to be heard, but unfortunately, haven’t taken public officials up on the chance for an open dialogue.
We speak firstly of the 2015 City of Estevan budget and secondly, of the South East Cornerstone Public School Division’s consultation project Cornerstone Tomorrow.
Before city council passed the 2015 budget, the public had an opportunity to review the plan as set out by the city manager and various department heads. After reviewing the information, all questions, concerns and comments were to be directed to the administration or to councillors during an open meeting on Jan. 26. There were no members of the public interested enough to attend the meeting and express their thoughts, and there were six concerned citizens who took time out of their day to ask questions prior to the meeting in written submissions.
The very same evening, Cornerstone held a public consultation at Estevan Comprehensive School. Six people attended that meeting to speak with the consultants.
We may draw three conclusions from the perceived lack of interest that we witnessed at these meetings. The first being that the City and Cornerstone are both operating smoothly, efficiently and immaculately, that there is no need for the public to provide input, because these institutions are already carrying out the complete will of the public at the precise cost the public demands of them.
Secondly, we may suggest it’s possible the public is disenfranchised, and voters don’t feel they have a say even if given the chance to directly address what they desire in a public forum. Perhaps there is a feeling of disconnect between voters and public officials as though the public considers the cards already dealt and that any contribution from outside the administrative circles will be heard but disregarded.
Thirdly, we could rightly infer that people don’t care what the City does with their tax dollars. They don’t care how their children are educated or what manner of education system their grandchildren experience.
We don’t know if any of those answers are accurate or if all of them partly describe the public mood to varying degrees. It’s quite possible that everyone falls into one of those categories.
The City may be the easiest target for public challenges at the moment, even if many issues Estevan is left to deal with are the result of poor planning by individuals who are no longer involved. It may not be fair to hold the current administration accountable for past administrations’ mistakes.
Still, reading through the 2015 budget recommendations, a common theme is that the City is making a number of financial decisions this year because of a refusal to take action years ago. From property tax increases to water utility rate increases and an additional $5 million of debt, the City administration and management is doing what it can to find the revenue necessary to keep Estevan afloat and prevent its infrastructure from crumbling.
While this is a result of systemic issues in city governance and accountability for a number of years, we do wonder why there aren’t more members of the public asking some questions to help understand what has been going so wrong that a booming city experiencing some of its best economic times is also dealing with significant funding and debt issues.
While the plan forward is perhaps clearer with the budget outlining not just a plan for 2015 but projections into 2019, it would be heartening to see more people taking an interest in that future by asking questions and maybe even presenting a good idea of their own.
