Major changes are likely coming to the city of Columbia and Columbia Public Schools because of the April 4 municipal election.
At minimum, more uncertainty is likely to come from the two elected bodies. The City Council will have two new members who, when combined with the two new members and new mayor elected last year, will leave only the Ward 6 council member, Betsy Peters, with more than one term of experience.
The Columbia Board of Education will have at least two, and maybe three, new members, out of seven board members. School boards across the nation are becoming more political, more embroiled in issues that go beyond teaching reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmatic, and CPS is no exception.
The political environment across all levels of government is increasingly polarized. That means more policy stalemate and inaction, but it also means it’s more demanding, and less satisfying, to be an elected official.
Mix in more stressful living due to the pandemic and family responsibilities, and the notion of elected publicly minded officials guiding local government is in jeopardy. The voluntary exit of School Board President David Seamon and of First Ward council member Pat Fowler are emblematic of American politics in 2023.
Both Seamon and Fowler could have been expected to serve Columbia for several terms in their current positions and might have been candidates for higher office.
I don’t personally know either Fowler or Seamon, but I believe each had the preparation, the ideas, the skills and the drive to be good public servants. Their voluntary exit from local governance should be disappointing to Columbia, but they can serve as an opportunity to see the difficulties and frustrations of elected office.
Seamon posted an 11-point message on Facebook listing his frustration with serving on the board as reasons for not seeking another term.
Fowler ended her candidacy for re-election after candidate filing had closed, leaving the Ward 1 with only one candidate. That’s not good.
Seamon’s statement deserves wider distribution and discussion. While it is rougher than people in the public office usually display, it contains several observations that candidates and citizens will benefit by, if only we listened.
Seamon is not laudatory of Columbia residents in general, but more pointedly of citizens and groups whose support he could have expected to receive.
After becoming a candidate for a second term, Fowler terminated her re-election effort because the demands of a caring for a parent in an unreliable retirement home became too demanding and time consuming.
I applaud her for that. Some of her critics dislike her lawyer-like style of questioning staff and arguing her positions at council meetings. I see their point, but I believe she filled a leadership role that will now need to be absorbed by other members.
I first noticed Fowler at least four years before she ran for elected office because of her regular attendance at City Council meetings where she sat off to the side near the back taking notes while she observed council proceedings.
She also served on a citywide commission at the time. When she ran for her first term in 2020, I described her as the best prepared council candidate I ever saw.
The public and most first-time candidates have an inaccurate and incomplete picture of what serving on the City Council and School Board entails.
Their misunderstanding might be excusable because of inadequate civics education in K-12 and higher education, but it has consequences for the kind of government we get.
Local elected office is not a picnic, not like campaigns, not like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” It is often, err usually, tedious and rather boring with periods of high conflict that are carried out with a small group of colleagues that fate tossed together to make policy decisions.
The major responsibility of city councils and school boards is to hire and oversee a professional manager whom they, in theory, could fire at any time.
The city manager or school superintendent manages a large staff of specialized professionals who are usually more devoted to their profession than they are satisfying the elected city council or school board. Oh yeah, our elected officials are non-paying, part-time jobs while the professional staff are full-time paid positions.
Our election campaigns are not well suited for selecting officeholders. For starters, candidates must sound like they have informed opinions because the mainstream media expects them to, despite few mainstream media members having such knowledge themselves.
Further, candidates must sound like they can make a change in some public policy, while in reality the odds of success are small. The structure and authority of city councils and school boards prevent active, aggressive policymaking by turning well-intentioned elected officials into passive overseers of less than transparent professional staffers.
If former Missouri Rep. Chuck Basye is elected to the Columbia School Board, I expect to see challenges to the traditional structure of board operations where members are expected “to speak in one voice” and to sit for hours cheerleading numerous student and employee achievements at the start of most meetings rather than making policy decisions.
Perhaps the weakest aspect of our political system are citizens. Voting turnout will be about 15% in this coming municipal election. Voters can prepare themselves to make a good voting decision by attending or viewing one of several election forums around town.
This Tuesday, March 7, at 6:30 p.m. at the Columbia Public Library will be the League of Women Voters forum, which I consider to be the single best event for learning about Columbia politics. That forum will be broadcast on KFRU 1400 AM and KOPN 89.5 FM and will be available on Zoom.
Another opportunity to see the candidates is being offered by ComoBuz, an online publication. They will host a forum for City Council candidates March 13 and for the seven candidates vying for the three seats on the Columbia School Board on March 20.
Both events will be at the MU College of Business debates planned for School Board and City Council candidates | Buzworthy | comobuz.com
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