Leadership, Blogs and Ruston

A new comment came in today an old post on January 19th, shortly after the rancorous fire department study session. I want to share the full dialogue because the sentiment here is even more poignant today after the last couple of council meetings. I'm not going to try to defend what we do here on this blog ~ it is what is and provides an important venue for communicating. I deeply appreciate everyone's input, especially those who don't agree with me. It's that dialogue that holds the potential for making us a better community. ~ Karen
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Posted by Ruston Home at 10:16:00 PM (January 19, 2008)
I wanted to post this anonymous comment because it reflects much of my personal feelings. I hope and pray our elected officials can find the strength to lead us through these troubled times. We all hope for better days ahead. Thank you for this thoughtful comment....

We encourage a variety of opinion. If anyone wants to post on this main page, please email me at kpickett22@yahoo.com.

I would like to look at this recent change as an opportunity for all of us to set differences aside: Ruston blog and Ruston connection. I want Ruston to remain Ruston. I fear we are on the verge of loosing that, then we become a nonfactor in any decisions/discussions affecting our future.

I would ask for our Council members to lead us in the right direction. I did not vote for all of you, and I certainly don't agree with the opinions you all might have expressed, but I must trust you at this time. It saddens me that I fear what my trust might deliver, but I simply do not have the time to give to fight.

Please. Understand that the majority of us in Ruston don't care about who is with which "group", we care about keeping our town our town. Too many of us are tired. We are tired from working full time to support out families. We are tired because that is just the world we live in. That is why we vote for you. And I, at this time, trust, and pray, for all of you to overcome your differences to represent and develop a sense of community we once had and need again.

Thank you for serving us. I know it is not an easy task for any of you. And I appreciate you all. We are in your hands. Please remember this.

5 comments:
Karen said...
I appreciate this thoughtful comment. There is much I agree with here. But I don't think we have to set aside our differences to reach compromise. I think we need to hear and understand each other, not stop expressing our opinions. The current 'hostile' environment that Everding deplores is created by the council majority (and often the mayor) not hearing other points of view. People have turned up the volume in an attempt to be heard. Not being heard on the fire department issue is a clear indication of this trend. Expressing ourselves, both here and the Ruston Connection, are good things. Hearing each other is more difficult, but vital to our survival. Let's hope we can take this next step...

January 19, 2008 10:53 PM
Ruston Resident said...
"Set aside differences:" How would you propose doing that under these circumstances. The differences are fundamental to our future. One side, the Connection folks, want us to annex to Tacoma. They made that very clear when Stebner went and met with Tacoma's mayor with that very topic on the agenda. FOIA requests produced the proof. The other side, who seem to be congregating on the blog, wants to preserve our town. Where would you propose to compromise on that?

I can appreciate that the fight is wearing you out. I wish there were a better way to achieve goals. But when you want to keep something that others are trying to take away, there will always be a fight. There's no way around it. It is my belief that, given their past behavior, the worse thing we can do right now is trust the connection folks. If a thief tried to steal your money and you fought him off, would you be inclined to trust him the next time you saw him? I think trust is a very bad idea right now. I'm sorry you're tired. It's the nature of being human. But, as the saying goes, anything worth having is worth fighting for. Take a break, my friend. There are others of us who are willing to keep up the fight while you rest. Perhaps when one of us needs a break, you will be in better shape to step up and fill in the ranks.

Another point I'd like to make here. You have identified the two sides as blog and connection. There's no doubt that the Ruston Connection was organized to promote a political agenda and their candidates. But the blog seems to be merely for the purpose of putting out information that's not otherwise getting out there. It also provides a forum for the free exchange of ideas. The blog is not trying to lead a movement.And finally, you mentioned you want to hope and pray. Those are good things. I agree completely that we could use some prayer right now. That alone is a valuable contribution to the situation and I appreciate it. Thanks for writing.

January 20, 2008 9:23 AM
KarMichael said...
First let me say that I'm very disappointed with the workgroup session and what it was reduced to because of the tone set by Dan Albertson. This is not to point fingers, but rather to state a fact based upon his mandates to all of us at the beginning of the meeting. I believe our Council members suffer from confusion as to what is their responsibility and what belongs to the Mayor. It was clear before the meeting even started that there was considerable friction between Councilman Albertson and the Mayor, which then carried over to us by Councilman Albertson lecturing us as if we were bad students and the principal needed to punish us. That’s my personal take on how the meeting opened, which then lead to further deterioration and a newly elected council person walking out in a snit making a snide comment. I don't think that's why he was elected to office and certainly didn't run his campaign on this basis.

In addition to setting the tone for the meeting, I was further disappointed by the format of the workgroup. I fully expected that we would have an informal workgroup, where attendees could sit in a circle (to facilitate communication among everyone) along with our town council and mayor to review the fire committee report. The report completed by the fire committee has been distributed and presented several times already, yet we never seem to come to any resolution of the information presented. It appears that each time it comes up for discussion someone wants more information. What specifically is there left to report on? The report is very comprehensive, and we have to recognize that the town council does not have the medical background or expertise to make independent decisions that affect the residents of our town .

While there obviously is an agenda shared by a few council members, the town as a majority has made its wishes known and very clear: Keep Ruston and the Ruston Fire Department. To me the issue is pretty simple. Has Ruston had a catastrophe in the past few years that we haven't addressed? Are there concerns for the near future that our fire department and the report from the fire committee didn't address, and if so, what are they? Who is dissatisfied with the current level of service, and what specifically are they dissatisfied with? Let’s deal with realities not innuendos, lies and rumors. This is our town and our fire department. We should be able to discuss concerns without having our council members go behind our backs and meet with the City of Tacoma to forge a contract that the majority of us don’t want. I believe it’s time for us to call for a vote to affirm our fire department, put the nonsense with Tacoma to bed, and get on with the issues that require our immediate attention.

Having said this, these are my concerns. Our Council keeps spending our money frivolously while at the same time professing to be financially responsible and frugal. I believe Councilman Albertson was adamant while campaigning for office that the money should not be touched! However, we keep spending this money and soon Ruston won’t be financially viable, causing bankruptcy and annexation to Tacoma. All this after several of these council members pledged otherwise. While I firmly believe the Ruston Fire Department is a non-issue and should be put to rest with a straight up vote, there are other issues that I believe require our immediate attention and yet no one to date has presented a clear statement that outlines the vision for Ruston within the next year and into the next 5 and10 years. We haven’t established any goals for the next year, and we still don't have a road map of how to get anywhere because we don't have a strategic plan. How are we going to approach the issues facing our community and prioritize the issues facing our community? Which items do we address first? We know our infrastructure is crumbling, we know we need some new/used fire equipment, expand personnel, etc, but no one has articulated a plan to address anything. We keep reacting to fires, and that's not management.

Leadership and integrity is another issue I’m concerned with. We currently have only one Council member who operates from a position of integrity, honesty, and conducts himself with dignity and fairness. We may not be able to prove that the open meeting laws have been broken, or at least the spirit of the law broken, but it’s clear that discussions have taken place prior to the public meetings and agendas have been marked out. This is too small a community to be conducting town business behind closed doors. We expect better from our council. I would suggest that council members could take a few lessons from Councilman Hedrick and be forthright in conducting town business. I recognize that we won’t all see eye to eye on every issue and I don’t expect that we’re all going to get along all the time. What I do expect is that our council will listen to what we have to say since you work for all of us not just a few. I also expect that each of you will bring your skills and knowledge to the table, and recognize when you don’t have the expertise, and rely on those who do. Let’s deal with the big stuff and not sweat the small stuff.

And lastly, this isn’t about the RC vs. the RustonBlog. This is about our town and the issues that can no longer be ignored. We are your constituents and your first allegiance is to listen to us. Treat us respectfully, and we will do the same. These are our meetings: Not yours. Let’s stay focused on the issues and make f this town proud of how we deal with issues and set an example for others to follow. Karen King

January 21, 2008 8:48 PM
Karen said...
Well said, Karen! Thank you for putting things so concisely. I hope our leaders are listening. At least Everding won’t be sitting in his council seat any more saying that he doesn’t like you.

January 21, 2008 9:00 PM
Anonymous said...
Actually, the comment is anything but thoughtful - just another biased one-sided name calling opinion designed to foster the Pickett agenda to sow as much discontent as possible. How many votes did you get in the last 2 elections? Less than 1/3 of the vote? So you and your supporters spend your time engaging in your version of "civil" discussion - calling people Nazis, questioning their sexuality, and making implied threats. It's what people do when they can't talk about real matters of policy. You like Councilmember Hedrick so he can do no wrong. But what has he done for the town? What has he ever proposed? He violated his campaign theme of bringing a positive voice in his very first comment as a new councilmember and now routinely criticizes his fellow councilmembers without offering any proposals. The rest of the council is actually trying to make up for the years of bad leadership, bad management, and inattention that got the town here. And stop talking about not being able to express your opinions. YOU are the ones who yell your opinions and disrupt meetings. YOU are the ones attacking anyone who disagrees with you. YOU are the ones who are making any positive change difficult. YOU are the ones who are giving the town a bad name but you get such enjoyment out of anonymously trashing your neighbors while writing sappy stories about how much you care about Ruston.
July 25, 2008 10:33 AM