Earlier this week, the op-ed piece below was printed in the Springfield News-Leader.  I appreciate their willingness to help Springfield deal with this topic.

In City Council’s most recent study session, I brought up the issue of decorum and civility during our meetings.  The trigger point for that was the tone of our January 10 Council meeting.

Granted, the meeting was long (five hours) and the issues were tough ones (initiative petitions, zoning changes, and tax abatements), but the take-away for most people who either attended or watched that meeting was the atmosphere of anger and hostility.

In the study session, I suggested we look at the following five items: 

• Anger is not a suitable platform from which to govern.  This is a deliberative body; we should deliberate rationally, calmly, without attacks or innuendo.
• We limit our citizen participants to five minutes to marshal their arguments and to state their position.  Why should Council members not be expected to do the same?
• The Charter specifies Roberts Rules of Order.   One of those rules is that we refrain from personal attacks.  We should follow that rule at all times. 
• We should refrain from using the Council dais as a campaign stump or to posture for our political bases.  We are here to conduct city business for our citizens.
• Council members should be considerate of City staff members who are at Council meetings on their own time in order to answer our questions.  They have families and lives as well.

I submitted these, not to seek an ordinance or change in our rules, but rather to heighten awareness of the heated political rhetoric that is becoming the norm in Springfield.  I think it is time for all of us to turn down the thermostat on the inflammatory discussions that we have.  Name-calling, angry denunciations, and finger-pointing do not further the rational discussion necessary to craft appropriate solutions.

As I said in the study session, I am not trying to squelch any debate nor am I—in any way—interfere with the freedom of speech.  However, with that freedom of speech also comes a responsibility to not demean that freedom by being mean-spirited.  Our job on Council is to gather as much information as we can and then make the best decision we can.

Our job is not to climb on a soapbox and pontificate as if we were mom or dad and our constituents were sniffling little kids.  Most of us on Council have too much respect for the citizens and voters of Springfield to engage in that type of behavior.

I have heard from enough people to know that the behavior demonstrated in our last Council meeting was noted all over town and has been the subject of numerous conversations.  And that’s a shame.  I’d rather this Council be known for its calm, rational leadership.

If we—as elected members of Council—do not show respect to our constituents, our neighbors, and our staff, then we—as Council members—cannot earn the respect of those who elect us.  If we don’t become the model for civility, we cannot expect civility from others.