Tuesday, June 26, 2018

YouCAN But CAAB Can't

Last night was the monthly meeting of the City of Corvallis Climate Action Advisory Board (CAAB)...And after viewing them in "action" last night, well, let's just say that I could easily have titled this piece "Is THIS Leadership? Chapter 3."

As you might imagine from their name, the CAAB exists, it is said, to "advise" the Corvallis City Council on how best to address climate change. That's the theory anyway.

Last night's meeting started at 5:30 PM, and was supposed to last 90 minutes. It was an ominous sign that they put the opportunity for public comments dead last on their agenda - which is generally a sure sign that a group does not, in fact, want to hear from members of the public. The group is "facilitated" by Annette Mills, and the meeting was run, such as it was, by City Council member Charlyn Ellis.

Jumping to the end...The meeting went just shy of a half-hour over their scheduled time. Ah, but how they got there, now that's the story...I'll get to that in a minute. But the first real "action" item on the agenda was "Discussion with Representatives of YouCAN (15 mins.)." That's exactly how it was listed on the agenda. YouCAN, for those who don't know, is a group of local youth who are working with great energy, focus and passion on addressing climate change. About 10 members of the group came last night. They filled the front row of the seating, and stayed for the whole meeting.

It's just a shame that what they saw was so disheartening. Even more of a shame is that the members of CAAB didn't seem to really see them at all. They were sitting there, but seemingly not there for most of the CAAB members. YouCAN has been tirelessly advocating for the city to pass an ordinance regarding climate change. The city, and the CAAB, have been strongly opposed to passing any sort of ordinance dealing with climate change. The kids want something with teeth and measurable goals; the city and CAAB do not.

CAAB's "discussion" with YouCAN consisted of inviting two representatives from that group to come and sit in front of the board. One of the YouCAN reps spoke briefly, then the rest of the 15 minutes were eaten up (literally) by CAAB members, one by one, trying to convince "those meddling kids" to focus on anything and everything except an ordinance. One or two CAAB members actually told these kids, filled with passion and energy and worried about their own futures, to come back and check in with the CAAB in a couple of years, to see how they're doing!

Climate change is an existential threat to all life on this planet. It is happening now and there is an urgent need for us to respond to it immediately. But the members of the CAAB showed no sense of urgency. They looked at these kids, and essentially told them to get lost, stop bothering us, leave this business to the adults in the room. Left unsaid was that it was, collectively, the adults in the room that got the planet into this mess in the first place. The response from the CAAB was as meaningful as a recording saying, "Your call is important to us - please stay on the line." It was shameful and sad.

Charlyn Ellis had set her timer and when the 15 minutes were up - Wham! - that was it. She shut down the "discussion" and moved right along. Thanks, kids, now go away.

But they didn't go away. As I said, they stayed for the whole sad spectacle. Ellis was a real clock watcher when it came to dealing with the YouCAN kids, but she was notably more lax with, well, everything else.

The meeting actually began with a time-wasting "Check-in question." That was supposed to take "3 mins." per the agenda. Needless to say, since it gave the adult members of the CAAB an opportunity to pontificate, it took a lot longer. Everything but the YouCAN kids took a lot longer. It was an amazing and bizarre thing to behold.

Here was a group that is supposed to be dealing with the life-or-death, happening right now issue of climate change, and they wasted so much time. A great deal of the meeting was literally spent debating things like: "Should these items be numbered or have bullet points?" "Should this item be number two or three on our (numbered or bullet pointed) list?" "Would it be better for us to be called a board or a subcommittee?" The amount of time spent - sorry, wasted - talking about ephemeral things was astonishing. At one point, they even spent time discussing the fonts used on a couple of documents.

So, the takeaway was that fonts are worthy of discussion and debate. The future, the kids sitting right in front of you? Not so much. It's no wonder that a couple of the kids I talked with brought up the word "cynical" after viewing this sad display.

As I said at the beginning, this piece could easily be called "Is THIS Leadership? Chapter 3." On climate issues, and many others, our local leadership is totally checked out. I urge you to not believe the hype, and don't be lulled into thinking that groups with the word "Action" in their name are actually taking action. Do some reading, and see for yourself. Or, in this case, you could contact the kids involved with YouCAN and see what they have to say. They'll doubtlessly be at the next CAAB meeting (on July 30th), and so will I.

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