City Leaders Embrace, Hide From Public

As much as we hear annual July 4th admiration for the nation’s founding of government of the people, by the people and for the people, frequent examples locally and around the county of government hidden from the people reflect a tendency to forget it.

Every the occasional scenario in which the public’s business is conducted very much away from the public. There’s something in the water at city halls, countycourthouses and school administration buildings that confuses elected offcials about for whom they are working.

Springdale, however, deserves praise for a recent step in the right direction.

Sparked by lessons learned when Love’s Travel Center sought a truck stop along Interstate 540, the City Council has approved an expanded set of notifications to property owners adjacent to land for which variances from city regulations are proposed.

In the Love’s situation, a rezoning required notification of adjacent property owners. But the subsequent request for a variance to allow a really tall sign on the sight did not.

“Nobody knew about the sign variance until they read about it in the newspaper the next day,” City Attorney Jeft Harper said. “There were a lot of calls.”

A lot of what goes on within the confi nes of private property is nobody’s business, but some activities have the potential to aft ect nearby property owners by creating dangers or harming property values.

Springdale has taken a progressive step to give the public its best chance to debate issues that have an impact on their neighborhoods and the community as a whole. When developers know nearby neighbors will be notifi ed, they sometimes begin with advance conversations that help everyone understand what’s happening.

A little communication goes a long way toward a better end result. Developers don’t just have a responsibility to the homeowners, tenants or businesses that a development will serve; they must keep in mind the surroundings.

Not every community grasps the concept of community involvement. Take, for example, Bentonville. Last Monday, an engineering fi rm hired to evaluate water and sewer rates made its recommendation that the city increase sewer rates by 15 percent in 2013 and 10 percent the following year. Twenty-four hours later, the City Council took up the recommendation and passed it by a 5-3 vote. Council members Jim Dotson, Ryan Parks and Bill Burckart voted against the increases. Shane Perry, Chris Sooter, Jim Grider, Mary Baggett and Ed Austin voted for the measure.

Few things aftect everyone in town as much as water and sewer rates. Yet Bentonville’s residents were not oftered a public hearing in which to evaluate and discuss the impact of the decision.

Making a final decision on rates the day after a study’s finding is reported, well, makes it look like city offcials were moving quickly to avoid any blowback.

Elected offcials need to be more sensitive to ratepayers and realize they were not elected kings, but representatives. It’s no fun to hear complaints, but that’s part of the job.

Residents deserve a chance to be heard on issues in their communities, but especially on the ones directly taking money out of their pockets. City leaders fail when they don’t account for that in their governmental processes.