New Tools for New Times

With precautions in combating COVID-19 we’re all taking I’ve discovered (now that I’ve sort of gotten the hang of it) technology like Zoom meetings can be integral and essential for furthering involvement and engagement in our city’s business. 

Admittedly, sometimes Zoom meetings can feel a little bit like seances because you’re not sure who’s there and who’s speaking, but the more of them you do, the better at them you get which is why you should give them a try. Especially since I think they’re here to stay at least for a while.

You probably already watch City Council meetings either on the city’s website or on public access but you’re missing out. If you check out the calendar at the bottom of the city’s webpage, hold your cursor over one of the meeting listings, and then follow the link, from the comfort of your favorite chair you can be as engaged in our city’s government as you choose to be. 

Last Wednesday I rode along on a meeting of the City Council and Board of Education Ad Hoc Committee. Created at the start of last year’s budget deliberations, the committee was a vehicle to further communication among members of the City Council and the Board of Education (with others) to create a consensus as the budget took form. 

The meetings moved online when COVID restrictions started last March. They have returned for this year’s budget work and all parties will, I believe, continue to strengthen the communication chains they forged last year.

My notes to myself from last Wednesday included ‘trust fall’ in that everyone responsible for public education in Norwich, from delivering it to paying for it, has to believe everyone else is being honest and that takes work as well as practice and lots of both. 

You can check out that meeting for yourself. I’m looking forward to the next one, via Zoom (of course) on Saint Patrick’s Day at half-past six (the dialing and connecting instructions are all part of the agenda).   

We all win with transparent, dialogue-driven decisions, and the more we get involved in understanding the budget creation process the better the results will be for all of us. That no one, either from the Board of Education or the City Council wasted one another’s time posturing. hand-wringing or talking AT one another, rather than WITH one another, was so much more than merely encouraging, it was absolutely essential. It’s NOT just the “schools” who have a budget problem, it’s ALL of us (and if it helps, it's not just here). And it’s going to take everyone, from elected, through appointed to residents of all kinds, to get this done. 

There are no easy answers, especially now with so many unknowns, both in terms of challenges and opportunities. We need to avail ourselves of every tool we have to develop strategies to define goals and the means to achieve them in every aspect of our budget, including paying for everything we decide we want to have. That means being active now as discussions begin and offering informed suggestions, ideas, and encouragement. 

With apologies to Timothy Leary, turn on, tune in, and speak up. 
-bill kenny