But it's really apathy that hinders citizen participation, caused by decades frustration and disappointment with a bureaucracy that places it’s interest before the citizen's. But hey, that’s what governments do.
But there are still a handful of locals who believe that good citizenship is important to a functioning democracy. I do. I pay taxes, I vote, I shovel the sidewalks in my neighborhood. And I blog about what peeves me about Worcester.
That apathy comes from citizens who are peeved (understated of course) at City Hall, that bastion of democracy that doesn’t care an iota what you think. Although they do at times feign interest in your issue, but any response is purely lip service.
The article last week in the T&G about the Vacancy on Election Board Concerns GOP Head nailed the problem on the head. The City Manager’s office is the bottleneck that causes many of the positions to remain unfilled. And there’s a reason for that – politics.
The vetting process at City Hall is a highly political game with the CM’s office as the final arbiter - probing your background to determine your political correctness. So how many have unsuccessfully ran the gauntlet? Of course there are no statistics available from the city.
In the case of Nicole Apostola, who described her vetting process in a post, highlighted one of the issues. Since her position on the Hope Cemetery Board is rather insignificant (her job is to check that the flowers are watered) the interview wasn’t particularly challenging. However, interesting was the fact that the selection committee inquired about her status as a bloggerette. Their obvious concern being, is she a potential threat to the system? Now extrapolate that with a board or committee position that entails more visibility and responsibility. Nicole’s was walk in the park.
Several years ago an acquaintance undertook the process of getting on a city board. The result was, he gave up after 10 months of waiting. The City Manager’s office confirmed his application. But that was it. He never heard from them again.
The moral of the story, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. And the City Manager wants you to know that.
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