By Javier Sanchez
I was pushing my cart down the aisle at our local grocery store when I came across a family.
“Excuse me,” we’d say bumping into each other. Their kid was looking intently at a movie or video game or something that was left behind the breakfast snacks. “Oh wow, I really want this!” he exclaimed. He went on to say it was the “one” he had been looking for. “No,” they said. “But mom. Seriously. You promised.” “OK. I’ll think about it, she said.”
With eyes wide-opened, the boy acquiesced. “I’m really gonna get it, he whispered to himself,” full of promise. “I’ll think about it,” the mom said again.
I think we all know what “I’ll think about it” means. It means fugettaboutit. It’ll never happen. Never in a million years. It’s what you tell children to shut them up. In government, there is a similar provenance. Instead of saying “I’ll think about it,” bureaucrats send bills or ordinances — anything they wish to quash — “To committee.” So we can think about it.
That’s what just happened this weekend to City Councilor Samuel LeDoux after submitting a fully vetted ordinance to prevent tent cities and camping on public spaces in city limits.
Finally, someone with gumption has the fortitude and know-how to jump-start the conversation. Goodness knows nothing else is getting done. Mattresses, barbecue grills and bags of litter soil our community. Something must be done. So when Councilor LeDoux introduced legislation to the powers that be, you’d think something would start the debate.
Find out what works and doesn’t. Bring the ordinance to the councilors and let them discuss, debate and decide — democracy at its best.
According to City Manager Eric Lujan in a KRQE news story last week, the city attorney directed him to force the issue onto councilors. City management missed deadline after deadline to remove the encampment supposedly waiting on the Oregon Supreme Court decision.
We don’t have to wait for Supreme Court decisions to do right by our community. It is quite ironic the mayor and city manager now seek input to solve the problem after failing to seek counsel when inviting tent dwellers to the riverbanks of the Rio Grande in the heart of Española.
By the way, the Supreme Court sided with cities in the Grants Pass v. Johnson decision on June 28.
So why the hesitation? Why not bring recommendations from motivated city councilors to the fore? Why. Not. Do. SOMETHING given our urgency?
I went to a local drug store to buy cotton balls (don’t judge me). The helpful representative said they were behind glass doors and were locked. Lord help me that I need to find someone with keys to a vault in order to slide the glass door aside to give me the privilege of buying a $4 bag of cotton balls. I found out later that they’re used to filter drugs when shooting up. The representative said things have gotten worse since the encampment was established. She smiled and locked the glass enclosure and put the keys away. I was saddened.
After Samuel LeDoux submitted his ordinance to regulate how we allow or don’t allow tent cities and camping on all properties, the higher-ups decided to do just as the mom at the grocery store that I encountered did — they decided to … think about it. Instead of debate the merits of the ordinance, they created a committee to decide the fate of all Españolans. Committees are where ideas, plans of action and cities go to die. Nothing happens in committees. No matter how well-intentioned or determined councilors on the committee are, I assure you, nothing will get done.
There will be claims of a first meeting. Maybe a second meeting. But if these meeting are anything like the finance meetings yet to happen this year, I can assure you with all the pain in my heart, that nothing will ever get done. And so you know, Samuel wasn’t chosen to be on the committee, despite his enthusiasm. Neither was Justin Salazar-Torrez. District 4 isn’t represented. Perhaps because they’re not part of the “inner circle.”
“I’ll think about it.” It’s what we tell our kids when they don’t have a chance in hell. Take it to committee. It’s what we tell our constituents and councilors when they don’t have a chance in hell.
The only problem is, our city is at stake. It’s not a trinket or something inconsequential that we seek. With every quip about taking it to committee or saying I’ll think about it, our city languishes in comatose acquiescence. Make a decision and stop passing the buck.