Sunday, June 03, 2007
Blacksburg course trains citizens
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
- The wrath of Blacksburg
- Gmail isn't suitable for public records
- Candidates and their parties
- The aquatic center might sink
From the RoundTable blog
The next time someone complains about local taxes, pause for a moment and think about everything those tax dollars fund. There are obvious services such as police, fire, garbage and snowplows, but what else comes to mind?
Nothing? Shame on you. Dedicated government employees provide many other top-quality services.
Many people know that already, but it was never any clearer to me than at the Blacksburg Citizens Institute, which the town kindly allowed me to attend.
For the last couple of months, more than a dozen Blacksburg residents and I received a crash course in town government. Each Monday, with one obvious exception, we visited a different town department, met the people who keep things running and had a good time.
Parks and Recreation, Blacksburg Transit, Fire and Rescue, Police, Public Works, Virginia Tech/Montgomery Executive Airport, and Planning and Housing all opened their doors to inquisitive citizens and one annoying journalist.
We even got to ride a fire truck! Childish fun, no doubt, but fun nevertheless.
The goal of the class is to produce informed citizens who can watch what government does and contribute intelligently to the public conversation. When people better understand everything that goes into running a town and share their knowledge with friends and family, everyone wins.
There is a subtler goal for the institute, too, which town officials openly admitted. Those informed citizens are just the sort of people needed to fill citizen committees.
The town council might make the final, big decisions, but the planning commission, cemetery advisory committee, greenway/bikeway/sidewalk/corridor committee and many others analyze issues first. They advise the council and shape ordinances. Graduates of the citizens institute are prepared to serve if they are willing.
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Knowing that some of the participants might turn out to be future town leaders, the department heads with whom we met could have made hard-luck pitches. They could have pleaded for more money, more resources, more staff and more respect.
They didn't.
Their presentations were professional and loaded with insights into running multimillion-dollar operations. They let the truth speak for itself without any spin.
My classmates and I learned factoids galore. The airport generates more than $1.6 million worth of annual economic activity. None of the police department's 81 personnel lives in Blacksburg. The volunteer rescue squad responded to 2,341 calls last year. The town owns 500 acres of parkland, 100 of which are actually outside the town limits off Jennelle Road.
We also learned the practical details of making a town work transparently. Many town workers hold it as a badge of honor that so many people do not recognize all the work they do. When they are doing their jobs right, the public has nothing about which to complain and hardly notices all the little things happening behind the scenes.
I will tackle some of the specifics in future columns. Town employees dropped many nuggets that warrant further research.
Our teachers, I suspect, learned something also. They want to hear from citizens about how they can improve.
Blacksburg offers the citizens institute annually, and other residents would do well to take advantage of it.
Spending time with town employees and elected officials puts a human face on those too often perceived as nameless public minions. They are real people who are passionate about their jobs and their community. Institute graduates can recognize them in the future. They have shaken their hands and spent time with them. The intimidation of making a phone call or just saying "Hi" on the street disappears.
Other localities in the New River Valley should look at Blacksburg's program and consider hosting their own. Given the opportunity, people become passionate about local government. They are willing to listen and learn when officials treat them with respect and answer their questions.
The most important lesson I took from the citizens institute had nothing to do with town departments, though. For eight weeks, I observed my classmates. I saw people eager to learn about their community. Young and old, new and longtime residents, they cared about the future of their town and about how it functions. They had insightful comments and questions. If they are Blacksburg's future leaders, then the town will be in good hands.
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
