The Motivation for Publishing the Gilbert Gazette Web Site
January 23, 2003

Fleshing out the story
It's January 2003, and we are finally getting the gumption to write a piece for this page that explains why we started The Gilbert Gazette in May of 2002. We might need to write several drafts, but eventually, we plan to flesh out the story.

Our editor
It is no secret that Helen D. Gunderson, our editor, is the main, if not only force behind this project. She has lived in Gilbert nearly 10 years and has served on the town's parks and recreation commission as well as on the city council.

Helen had her share of frustrations with council work, mainly due to the mayor's autocratic leadership style. She was also concerned that there were few if any avenues for citizens to know what was going on in Gilbert government, unless of course, they attended council meetings. But even at meetings, it appears that many decisions have already been made behind the scenes.

Yes, there is a perfunctory set of minutes written about council meetings and published in the Ames paper. And yes, the town occasionally publishes a terse newsletter. However, because Gilbert has neither its own newspaper nor radio station and does not have a cafeteria where citizens regularly commiserate over a cup of coffee or herbal tea, knowledge about city government is not as accessible as it could be. The Ames Tribune occasionally carries news from Gilbert; however, even its editor and staff admit the difficulty of doing as good of job as they would like in terms of carrying local news, especially from out-lying towns.

Helen resigned from the council in April 2002 after two plus years on the council. She felt as though a load had been building on the camel's back in terms of issues she was facing. A stubborn and incorrect ruling by the mayor about making parliamentary motions was the straw that broke the camel's back.

The creative urge
It is true that Helen had previously given thought to publishing an unofficial web site for Gilbert. The idea had come to her late one night during the previous fall while she was practicing Qi Gong under the spreading branches of the neighbor's large tree. She wanted to squelch the creative spirit that was urging her to do the site, and yet she knew that creative ideas should not be suppressed without further consideration. She thought of a domain name for the site and proceeded to purchase it just in case she might some day follow through. However, she knew that publishing an unofficial web site for Gilbert would take energy from her other creative endeavors such as writing a book. She also knew it would not be wise to serve on the council and concurrently publish a community web site. She set aside the idea of doing the site, even though she possessed the domain name.

Paucity of public discourse at council meetings
After she resigned from the council, Helen thought she was going to walk into the sunset and not look back toward the council chamber. However, she realized she did not have to go into exile and found the gumption to go back to meetings and sit in the gallery, often the only visitor at council meetings.

She had submitted her letter of resignation 10 days prior to the next council meeting and assumed the agenda would include an item about the process of finding a replacement. Instead, there was nothing on the agenda about her resignation. She decided to call the Ames Tribune and alert the city writer there to what was happening (or not happening). The newspaper subsequently published an article.

At her first meetings as a visitor, she was angered by the paucity of official discussion about appointing someone to replace her on the council. There really was no public discussion, but instead were merely a few resolutions passed with the simple words "so move" and "second" followed by unanimous votes. Helen also began to realize that the only official public notice of the vacancy she had created would be a small ad in the Ames paper and announcements on three bulletin boards at establishments along Main Street. She did not feel that was the way to inform the public of her resignation nor to recruit a new council member. So she began her web site as a conduit to provide information to the public. In her first opinion piece, she wrote:

A 1999 team of candidates
Helen has never said the mayor's or council's veiled decision making was illegal. She did considerable research prior to writing her piece. She is aware that the mayor and council are essentially good people. In fact, she was one of the key promoters of a campaign for a team of candidates when she, Chris Benda, and Peg Uthe who were running for the council and Bob Jaquis was running for mayor.

Helen created the flyer for the team. She was the one who helped Bob Jaquis unravel the pedestal that the previous mayor, Paul Smith, had created. That's a whole story in itself and not something we will include here; however, you can click click here for a set of the team's promises. Click here to go to results of previous Gilbert elections.

A report card for the mayor and council
If the list of campaign promises made by the team were used as a report card, the mayor and current council would earn a high grade for "dealing with infrastructure problems effectively." Of course, we don't know what every citizen thinks. For instance, some of the people whose homes in the northwest part of town were heavily flooded in 1993 might perceive that little has been done to meet their infrastructure needs. However, paying attention to the detail of infrastructure is what the mayor and council do best.

The mayor and five council members operated as a harmonious team during their first several months in office. In fact, Helen often had commented about leadership meetings put on by the Iowa League of Cities where the presenter talked about the inevitability that officials would bring ego issues to office. She did not see that problem happening in Gilbert, and felt the mayor and council were a model team. The sense of teamwork eroded when she began pressing them to find healthy avenues of discourse to deal with a conflicted relationship between the mayor and clerk. Both the mayor and clerk were new to their jobs in 2000. The conflict between them surfaced in the fall of 2000. Although the council and city staff held a workshop with a trained facilitator in January 2002 that turned things around for a few months, the clerk said at a July 2002 council meeting that the working relationship between her and the mayor was worse than it ever had been.

A matter of public distrust
The mayor and council do not rate as well when it comes to fulfilling their campaign promise of "nurturing a high quality of community life." We believe that many of the council members know better regarding the importance of holding healthy dialog in the public arena and informing the public about council business. However, there seems to be peer pressure that keeps them from speaking up when things go awry as a result of the mayor's autocratic style. The manner in which the council appointed Jon to replace Helen on the council is one example. There are other examples, but an obvious and recent one happened in December of 2002.

Toward the end of the December 2 meeting, the mayor informed the council that he was going to be publishing another edition of the town's newsletter. He asked for recommendations of items to include. Two council members suggested he publish an announcement about openings on the city's parks and recreation commission. The commission had become dormant for many months. Another council member suggested the mayor include a write up about the city staff. The mayor chuckled that the latter task would challenge his writing ability.

The point is that the mayor did not follow up on either of the suggestions for the newsletter. In fact, we have heard that part of his rationale was something to the effect that in this day and age, with so many people moving into the community and whose backgrounds were unknown, it would not be wise to announce the parks and rec openings in the newsletter. What! He doesn't trust the public with knowledge about city government?! His notion is poppycock. The Gazette works wholeheartedly believes that an informed public is a key to democracy and works hard to make information available. Even when the public is well-informed, that doesn't mean that citizens will volunteer for positions such as membership on the parks and rec commission.

It is interesting that there has never been a discussion at a council meeting to develop a campaign to recruit parks and rec members or other volunteers. There has been no talk of holding a town hall meeting (something the previous mayor often did), hosting neighborhood meetings, or sending a representative to talk with groups such as Beta Sigma Phi or the Lion's Club to recruit the members. Instead, it appears that the mayor is single-handedly writing and sending out letters to potential recruits. We commend the mayor for his sense of responsibility. And yes, the town code says that he has the power to make appointments with approval from the council. However, government is not the work of one person whether a benign autocrat or malicious one. Part of the role of The Gazette is to circumvent the mayor's style and inform the public, inspire citizens to get involved and insist on more open government.

Analysis of Gilbert newsletters
Helen recently reviewed the sheaf of Gilbert newsletters maintained by the city clerk and did an informal analysis of the content of the ones published during the current mayor's tenure. It is possible that one was missing, especially if the mayor wrote it on his own and never provided city hall with a copy. Sometimes there was a five or six month lapse between newsletters — note a good way to stay in touch with the public. The bulk of items is about the town's infrastructure, which is not surprising. What is appalling is that the newsletters include no announcements about commission or council openings or about city elections. To be sure, The Gazette intends to make as much information available as possible about Gilbert's next elections. They will be held in the fall of 2003 when the mayor's chair and three council positions will be on the ballot.

We have heard that Mayor Bob Jaquis believes Helen wants to be mayor. In fact, in December of 2001, the mayor had a revealing retort to an e-mail letter from Helen. She had written the him suggesting that at the last meeting of the year, the council discuss scheduling various items that should be put on the agenda for the first few meetings of the new year. The mayor's retort was that Helen could have run for mayor, that she did not, and that she had no right to make decisions about the agenda. What the mayor does not realize is that the agenda belongs to the council and that Helen was acting in a responsible way with her suggestions.

Private oath of office
One of Helen's suggestions had to do with scheduling the oath of office for recently elected officials, including the mayor and two council members. We've been told that the mayor was sworn in by the city attorney at his Ames office and the mayor privately swore in the two councilors at their homes. Again, the mayor did nothing illegal, but there is value in having public rituals be done in the public arena. There is no notice in city minutes that Bob Jaquis, Lynn Henn, and Craig Allen have taken the oath of office for their current terms.

Shutting off discourse
The agenda for the December 16, 2002 council meeting included the reappointment of Sarah Carlson and Joy Leister to the parks and recreation commission. We know both these women and think highly of their leadership capabilities and the commitment they have to their careers, families, and churches. We also know they have good ideas about how to make Gilbert a better place to live.  However, we have been at commission meetings where they were frustrated because, although they had the desire to serve as worker bees, they did not have the necessary time and energy to serve as chair of the commission. Indeed, they both wished there were a strong commission leader. We are also under the impression that Sarah and Joy told their concerns to the mayor when he called to recruit them to be on the commission again.

There was a motion at the December 16 meeting to approve the appointments of Sarah and Joy. Again, it was one of those "so move" and "second" kind of actions on the part of the council. The mayor asked if there was any discussion, probably assuming there would be none. Helen asked to speak. She referred to being aware at commission meetings of Sarah's and Joy's frustrations due to a lack of leadership. In light of her observations, Helen asked the council what its expectations were of the commission members and what the commission members could expect from the council in terms of support so the commission could be successful in its work. As we said in our summary of the December 16 meeting:

This is one example of the several times in which the mayor has made a stubborn, autocratic ruling in which no council member moved to over rule the mayor's dictum or asked to let the visitor continue with his or her line of thought.

Gilbert mayors
We've heard comment from various long-time citizens that Gilbert has a history of autocratic mayors. It seems that the town is ripe for that kind of leadership. It's staff consists of only two full-time employees — the clerk and maintenance supervisor — and a part-time water superintendent. There is no city administrator even though the council hired its first one in the fall of 1999, then fired him a few months later. There has been no serious talk of searching for a replacement even though there has been money in the budget for an administrator. Twice in the past year, Council Member Chris Benda, has addressed the need to schedule a council discussion about the prospects of hiring an administrator. That discussion should happen. An ideal configuration would be for the city to have one person be an administrator/clerk and another person be a deputy clerk. As it is, there is too much work and pressure for the clerk. She does well at her work but does not have the training of an administrator nor the time to do the work of an administrator.

The mayor's job pays only $1,000. Not many citizens have the time or would be willing to undertake the work and responsibility of serving as mayor for that small of a stipend with so little staff support. In fact, not many citizens are willing to step forward and run for the council.

A small town can be an excellent avenue for people to get involved in government without having to immerse themselves in politics spelled with a capital "P." Government is supposed to be by the people. In a small town, that should mean a variety of citizens from a variety or backgrounds with a variety of skills serving as mayor and councilors — not for a long series of terms, but rotating to the front lines of town government then stepping back and letting new personalities take the helm. However, for that kind of rotation to take place, the council that is in power needs to look seriously at how it does business, the ways that it defers to the authority of the mayor, the balance of work between the mayor and council members, and its staffing. Then council needs to work toward a rotational form of government that makes it palatable for citizens to want to step forward and serve.

When a mayor or council member are elected to the office, they are to be commended for their willingness to serve. On the other hand, a well-intended but strong-willed person who becomes mayor in the status quo milieu of Gilbert government can become autocratic, perhaps even rigid and dictatorial. We're speaking here of the whole range of mayors who have served the town. And council members, who defer to the authority of a mayor and  do not know their own authority as a councilor and act on it, only perpetuate the milieu.

Part of the solution is to have strong and insightful council members willing to push for change. We commend Chris Benda for his persistence in asking the council to revisit the issue of hiring an administrator. We also commend Council Member Craig Allen for his recent suggestions that the council to assign its members to sub-committees. He has several reasons for the proposal. The most relevant is that each councilor would have to take on more responsibility — do homework and make recommendations. Currently and historically in Gilbert, the mayor has been the main person to do that kind of work. That means he has an inordinate amount of power.

Citizen involvement as a subversive activity
We have ordered a copy of the book Teaching as a Subversive Activity. We can't remember when or where we read it, and we know that the author has reversed some of his ideas since the 1970s when he wrote it. There is a kernel of truth in the book that is worth noting in relation to citizen involvement. We recall a portion that suggested students, instead of lamenting the insufficiencies of their teachers, rise up and behave in ways that would encourage the teachers to improve. When we get our hands on a copy of the book, we will tell you more about the concept. The point is that Gilbert needs citizen involvement.

As we have said before, the current leaders are well-intended people. They do well with specific projects that are right in front of their noses, especially those that have to do with infrastructure such as patching a street or planning a new well. However, if only one or a few people attend council meetings or insist on better government, there will be no change in the way things are done. The city council meetings in Ames are carried on cable television. The Ames mayor and council members know they are under public surveillance when they do their work. And Ames has plenty of citizen activists and other volunteers. Is Gilbert too much of a bed room community to expect similar citizen involvement?

It appears that the current Gilbert council members are unwilling to challenge the mayor on issues because the mayor is willing to shoulder a great amount of responsibility. Are they fearful that the mayor would quit if challenged and that there would be no other viable candidate for the mayoral position? Once Helen suggested privately to the mayor that the council hire a facilitator, such as a representative of the Center for Creative Justice, to help resolve the conflict between him and the clerk. His retorted that to engage in such a process would mean he had done something wrong. He also responded with the ultimatum that he would resign as mayor immediately if the council insisted on such a process. A mature leader would realize that people who work closely together inevitably will have conflicts, even when they are both important and worthy resources to the town. It's important to find healthy ways to work through the conflict so the town does not lose those people.

No public officer is indispensable. We don't know who should be our next mayor. Perhaps it should be Bob Jaquis. He currently provides computer support for the USDA Soil Tilth Laboratory but has B.S. Degree in business administration and experience as a supervisor and in accounting when he worked for Godfather's Pizza several years ago. Perhaps he could read what is written in these pages, learn from our feedback and that of other people, grow, and consider this as an experiment in continuing education. He might not be able to earn credits but then again, he could use the learning experience as fodder in an MBA program for a paper on qualitative civic management.

A variety of leadership skills are needed
Sometimes a organization needs a leader with strong envisioning and startup skills, but within a few years, that same agency needs a leader with long-range maintenance skills. Gilbert has needed leaders who are strong on dealing with infrastructure issues. However, it seems time to have a new mayor who is willing to conduct business more openly, communicate with the public better, and create more avenues for public interaction. After all, what is a town, even if it has a great source of water and well-paved streets but doesn't work deliberately on that element that could perhaps be labeled as a sense of soul for the community? Perhaps creating avenues of interaction and building a sense of community spirit is not truly the work of civic government. Perhaps it takes the involvement of citizens in their neighborhoods, churches, and other organizations.

So how do we get people involved? That's the big question, not only in a bed room community but across our nation. People can relax awhile before thinking about going to the polls to elect state or federal officials. However, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their municipalities, their home towns, and get involved. That could be signing up for a commission, being a mayoral or council candidate, or recruiting other people to be candidates and supporting them in their bid for office. It could also mean organizing a small group to sponsor a candidates forum prior to the election and arranging for a videotape of the forum to be shown on cable television and distributed through churches, clubs, and the library. It could mean getting involved with The Gazette. It could mean having a heart-to-heart candid conversation in private with a city official to suggest improvements in their areas of weakness. It could mean coming to public meetings. The mayor and council usually will let visitors participate in the conversation at council meetings regarding items on the agenda, and there is a special time at the beginning of meetings where citizens can address issues that are not on the agenda.

And for a bit of advice. If you or people you know plan to be on the mayoral or council ballot, don't wait until fall to show up at city hall. Be a serious contender, and that means knowing the territory, being familiar with the issues, and getting involved now.

And for another bit of advice, but first a bit of background. Helen has not hidden her concerns from the mayor and council. She has often written letters and mailed them to each official. Seldom, if ever, has she heard back from the mayor or council members or witnessed any evidence at council meetings that showed they had read her material. In addition, we have heard of people talking individually to the mayor about an issue but that issue never making it into the council chamber for dialog. We have also heard of the time when the mayor dictated to a woman that she could not go ahead with a block party her neighborhood was planning on private property. There was also the time when the mayor told a couple they could not build a fence. Or there was another time when some parents were concerned about the mayor surreptitiously  secretly in a car with a camera and observing their children at play.

There is no job description for the mayor. In fact state law for cities says that the primary responsibility of city government lies in the hands of the council, and the mayor's main job is that of moderating the meetings. No where is it written that he is the CEO of the town or that it is his role to police things like block parties and fence-building projects. Perhaps it is natural that a mayor would wear some of those hats, but it seems wise for the council to insist that the mayor report at least monthly about his activities so they could be reviewed and the mayor be given direction.

Our advice is this. Come to council meetings with your concerns if you unable to resolve them in a satisfactory way with the mayor outside of a public meeting. If you can't convince the mayor ahead of time to put you on the agenda, you can always speak during the open forum, and the entire council can know about your concerns. Also, what you say becomes a matter of public record. In other words, a summary will be published in the minutes that go in The Ames Tribune and that are available at city hall for future researchers. Also, the Gilbert Gazette will be able to write about your concerns and how the mayor and council members react to them at the meeting. The council members can not discuss your issues thoroughly nor move in the direction of deciding policy during the open forum; however, they could move to put the matter on the agenda for the next meeting.

Helen's aspirations
What more can we say? We can only lead horses to water. We can only prime the pump. We seldom experience any feedback or sense of success in what we are doing, but The Gazette will keep at the work of being a conduit of information to the public. Helen is game to do this for awhile longer. Her current commitment is to continue the experiment until December 31, 2003 when her term of office as a council member would normally have expired had she not resigned. Does she want to be mayor? No, she does not want to be mayor, but she sure wishes the community would find someone who shares some of her vision about public dialogue,  communicating with the public, and building a sense of community spirit who would run for office. For now, she has found a niche of serving the community that cannot be silenced by an autocratic city officer.

Making information about city government more readily available to the public and challenging the autocratic style of the current mayor is not the only interest Helen has in publishing this web site. She has a larger vision. She realizes that alienation runs rampant in society and that there need to be new avenues for people to connect. She wants The Gazette to be a vehicle, not only for dispensing information, but for increased interaction among people who identify with Gilbert. She also wants it to be a catalyst for an improved sense of community spirit for this evolving town and its surrounding area.

The challenge
Our challenge to the residents of Gilbert and the nearby area is to think of citizen involvement as a subversive activity. They need be the catalyst to bring out the best in democratic principles and community involvement for our town. For some people, Gilbert is their hometown. For others, the place is our adopted home town. Whether we reside here until carried away by our boots or move elsewhere on our own volition, this is our home. No one else can do the job for us of making and maintaining Gilbert as a place to live that we are proud to call our home.

We'll drink to that
By the way, Gilbert celebrates its 125th anniversary in the summer of 2004. We're looking forward to seeing increased citizen involvement before then, but wouldn't it be great to have a huge parade, rally together over a hot dog or hamburger fry, click our drinks together high in the air, toast to the change in spirit for our community, then have some superb homemade pie and ice cream while watching the rest of the festivities. In the meantime, feel free to get in touch with us.

The Gilbert Gazette
Gilbert, Iowa 50105

Latest revisions made on January 26, 2003.
All rights reserved.