When citizens engage, meet with them

Is La Conner blessed to have a cadre of concerned citizens, an ever shifting but attentive segment of our population who insist on saying “wait,” “stop” and “no,” or even “no more?”

In December 2017, a group of the board of directors of the Museum of Northwest Art resigned and were critically questioning the administrative and financial management of Director Christopher Shainin.

A public meeting to discuss the museum’s future in February 2018 brought a critical crowd and a robust discussion of the museum’s problems. Shainin resigned the next day.

In May 2019 La Conner School District Superintendent Whitney Meissner did not renew veteran food services director Georgia Johnson’s contract. School staff, students and area residents packed school board meetings. The school board heard voluminous, lengthy and passionate testimony but barely replied except by their vote to approve letting Johnson go. The next month the staff unions passed votes of no confidence in Meissner and asked for her resignation.

In La Conner, by the end of 2020, residents, primarily parents with children, started asking for a delay to the Town’s decision to buy and immediately sell the Hedlin family’s Maple Avenue ballfield property. Citizen calls to meet and discuss options hardly slowed the sale but gained a slightly larger park than was initially carved out.

Now dozens of residents have signed two letters to La Conner’s elected officials questioning both the spirit and the legality of Town decision actions in sizing the actual park.

Are the town’s citizens merely combative and critical of authority? Those are key traits in a democratic community. But the common thread in these conflicts is institutional leadership acting without sufficiently engaging the community and ignoring clear, strong and critical evidence questioning decisions made without adequate involvement of the public.

The mayor, council and staff will defend their decisions, saying both plenty of time and opportunity were available in 2020 to ask questions and that pandemic conditions prevented public gatherings. But the initial decision to buy and sell the ball field was presented as a package that council readily accepted without questioning the premise of selling the property immediately after buying it. Fundamental questions were not put to residents: If the Town purchases this 84,000 square foot property, what does the community want to do with it? What is the public’s vision for these two acres of greenspace, not only for the next year, but for the next generation?

Residents were not asked, much less engaged.

The Hedlin family hoped the entire space would remain as is: ballfields for generations to come. When told in private negotiations that was not possible, they agreed to selling the property, with the condition that the Town set 24,000 contiguous square feet apart for a park. The Town dedicated “to the public a restrictive covenant ... restricting the use of the real property legally described,” as the document filed with the county states.

Since that covenant’s signing and the selling of the property in April, the Town has emphasized the development of both the 10 home subdivision and the park. A park commission focus is on developing a public survey for input to the park’s use. To Hedlin and citizen concerns that the park stay 24,000 square feet, in grass – perhaps for years to come – elected officials have been unable to say “yes, we respect and honor your wishes.” Talk has included naming the park for the Hedlins but echoing the family’s desires and committing to the clear language set in legal documents has not been championed.

The Town can set an example that MoNA and the school district failed to do in their times of conflict: they can engage the public on an equal basis, accepting that the citizens’ premise and position is the basis for discussion and decision making.

Town officials say they want to recognize the Hedlins. They will do so by fully honoring the family’s request and following the spirit of the covenant signed for and to us: the public.

May those governing the town have the courage and compassion to give up control and instead be able to work with the community for the results the community is telling those governing them they want.

Land in grass that stays grass. Is that so hard to say yes to a family being told they are honored?