Questionable Strategy

I attended a long town council meeting last night. It was so long that I ended up going home before it was completely over and regret that... in that, now I might not know ALL that ended up happening. But the two and a half hours I attended, I learned a lot! I'll write more about the meat and potatoes issues that were discussed in a future blog, but for now, I just have to (rant) over an incident that happened.



A group of extremely dedicated women had their agenda come up for a hearing. These ladies are trying to get a new humane animal shelter built in Superior. (I mentioned the current one in a blog about two months ago: "The Subject is Dogs" February 18). Normally, an agenda item takes about ten to fifteen minutes for the presenter to present AND the council to confer. In this particular one, the ladies brought some Gung-Ho groups out of the Valley (Phoenix, meaning: money) to do the presenting. What they were asking the council for was about five acres of land to build a new state of the art facility for the animals. The animal rights lady spoke for thirty-five minutes and then wanted a second lady to make her points, but the mayor said he was sorry, her time was up (and besides the crowd was getting restive after hearing the same points hammered three or more times). So the ladies, in a bunch, got up and trooped out, leaving the rest of us tired and wondering when we'd get to hear our agenda items.



The ladies were making good points about which they spoke. Yes, there's a crying need for a more humane, bigger facility for abandoned animals in this town. Yes, it's far better to try and place unwanted animals and get them spayed and neutered and returned to good loving homes. But it was their tactics that left me cold! At the end of the presentation, before the ladies even knew if they had swayed the councilmen or the mayor in getting their five acres of land, they threatened the town! The threat was that they would expose to the state the poor underequipped (malfunctioning) animal facility the town already has. That IF the town allowed them to have the land they need to build their new building, then they'd hush up the current situation and "get on with it". But if the town ignored their requests, they were going to raise a ruckus and boy, would the town would be sorry!



Goodness me, Ladies, but your tactics are harsh. If it was me asking for something from the town, I think I'd be as pleasant as possible when I asked for something. Then, if I got stalled or derailed, I'd get a bit critical and haul out my "You'll be sorry!" scenario. You aren't going to get what you ask for by this method. I'd say eighty per cent of the councilmembers (maybe more) were deciding to ignore your request a) because of the length of your presentation and b) because you were using implied threats against the town.



If I were God of this town (or had any say in the matter, which I don't) I do have a solution however. The animal group needs land. A small industrial group wants to settle in Superior and build a facility that would use roughly three acres of land. The City of Superior has a block of industrial land (Lot 3) for sale that is nine acres in size. The small industrial group has made a bid on the property that most of the council members were privately sneering at since the bid was so low. But the Win here would be that the small industrial outfit would be hiring up to thirty mostly unskilled workers and training them at a rate of $15. to $30. per hour (and that's nothing to sneer at!). So my solution would be this: The town subdivides the nine acre parcel and sells three acres to the small industrial part to the new plant that will be built and hires thirty nonskilled people. Then they give the remaining six acres to the animal people for a new facility that would bring good Ju-Ju to the town for being so humane and state of the art. The town looks good from both an economical and humane point of view. What's not to like about this scenario?



But that's just my opinion.