About ‘Citizen’ Reps on Commissions

Whitewater’s boards and commissions sometimes have politicians, city employees, the privately-employed, or retired residents as members. The mix between these categories is often fixed: there must be so many citizen reps, council members, etc.

In a technical, but disingenuous, way, all of the members of a commission are likely to be citizen-resident representatives. If the term citizen rep is to have any reasonable meaning, however, the definition describes those not in office, those with a private position and perspective different from bureaucrats, politicians, etc.

How very odd, then, to think that a long-term city manager, having just left that post a month ago, would find his way back to a board on which he served while city manager, now as a ‘citizen’ member.

It’s technically correct to appoint him that way, but an insult to private citizens who might wish a spot on a board.

(It’s even odder when the city manager, while about to leave, proposes an expansion of the number of citizen spots on the board, just in time for him to take a newly-created citizen’s spot after he can no longer have a bureaucrat’s spot.)

That’s just another perk on the way out. So instead of giving a departing bureaucrat, say, a gold watch or Red Pin Oak, the bureaucrat gets watch or tree plus a citizen’s spot on a commission.

Even if one assumed that the bureaucrat were the best possible candidate from among all applicants — and in this case that would be just silly — it’s still a spot that belongs to a different member of the community, to provide balance and diversity rather than group-think and back-patting.

That diversity of membership will produce a better result than a rigged game of musical chairs.