Post in City Council Vacancy: Selection Criteria

May 16 08:18 UTC

The problem is that there are a lot of people, especially those who grew up in
the pre-Vietnam War era in my opinion, who believe that words like
"deliberative" and "agree to disagree" are simply synonyms of the word
incivility.  You and I separate out these words, but I find that most blur them
together.

I used the terms "pretty looking" and "ugly looking" in my quote.  Many have a
warped belief that local government meetings should look pretty.  That means no
"deliberation" which in their mind means arguing, and no "agree to disagree"
which essentially means disagreement.  This warped belief is what drives many
of these local governments to do things like I referenced such as only
televising the meetings where hard decisions are NOT made.

To show the level of absurdity of this whole concept, look at Mr. Klausing's
campaign for mayor a few years ago.  The statement that kept being made is
elect me and I will bring consensus to the council.  I will work on team
building.  He stood for no issues, no public policy goals, etc.  Ms. Pust on
the other hand had issues and public policy goals as part of her campaign.
Well the public supported a campaign of consensus voting over a campaign of
issues and public policy goals.

The definition of consensus in the context that it was used was that all votes
will be 5-0.  Team building, as one Roseville Review editorial writer stated,
implies group think and that everyone must conform.  Heck, the staff even
brought in this character called Carl Neu who preached group think.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree.  I look for candidates who can get
the job done that needs to get done.  I could care less whether they work well
with others.  As I believe Margaret Thatcher once said, consensus is the
absence of leadership.

One last thought is take a look at the new city hall, new public works
building, and the rebuilt civic center campus started in 2003.  This is what
got done when you threw aside consensus and embracing what some call
incivility.  Now this building should have been built 10 years earlier, but the
atmosphere of consensus accomplished nothing.  In fact the city actually
removed it from long range plans thinking it was never going to happen.  Then
after this project was done, the council was supposed to turn their attention
to tearing down and replacing the dilapidated Fire Station #1 in 2004.  Well
where is the new fire station 5 years later?  Well I guess that is what happens
when you elect a leader who ran solely on a platform of bringing consensus to
the council.  Consensus is just a form of paralysis.

John M. Kysylyczyn
K Solutions LLC, owner
3083 Victoria Street
Roseville, MN  55113
email: <email obscured>
home office: (651) 484-1384

www.ksolutionsllc.com
Mayor of Roseville, MN  2000-2004