Being a "leader" instead of a "caretaker"

The Town Council held a workshop Tuesday afternoon to discuss ways that the Town and County could merge Planning and Building services. Also discussed by some was why it could never really happen. With a total of five members of the Town Council and the Mayor, there appeared to be an even three to three split over the idea of doing some kind of merged planning versus doing very little to nothing to change what we have got.

From my seat in the audience of a packed house, here is what I saw. No I won’t pretend any personal objectivity or neutrality on this topic at all.

The County’s spokesperson Rick Bellis appeared to be offering everything that the County possibly could to entice the Town into combining staff.

What I saw was some people attempting to form a more unified and more streamlined way of managing future development. I saw some other people so afraid of the details and the possibility that “something might go wrong” that they were completely unable to see the bigger picture here.

Imagine that large aliens from outer space came with a huge vacuum cleaner and sucked away both the Town Hall and the County Hall of Justice. Imagine that we were then left to replace the government of our community with a new structure.

Given a clean slate, would we build two separate governments to manage our small community or would it be logical to only install one government for our unified community of less than 10,000 residents?

Would it make any sense at all to install two building departments and two planning departments for a small community organized around a single seven mile strip of commercial development?

It can only make sense with the statement “well, but that’s just the way it has always been done”.

The heart of what I want to write about here is the difference between being a “caretaker” and being a “leader”. Most of the time, it is adequate for elected officials to be caretakers. Once in a while -- at critical junctures in our history -- true leadership is necessary.

Sometimes that leadership comes from elected leaders. Often times it must come from somewhere else.

General George Washington and his ragtag band of rebels almost starved to death in Valley Forge in 1778 because the vast majority of the citizens were too afraid to “change the system” and couldn’t be bothered to dig into their personal pockets to finance the rebel army. It was only a handful of men and women who led the vast populace of the American colonies towards forming a more perfect union.

After a bitter debate, only 7 out of the 13 colonies voted to approve the new constitution in 1787 which formed the unified republic. This result was the achievement of a small handful of leaders.

On its face, as an outside observer, obviously one planning and building department to manage our one small community makes more sense than having two departments do the same work. It’s obvious from the outside.

The real estate and building community has articulated clearly why a “one stop shop” is better than two separate departments. One thing is for sure. The current system of two planning and building departments does not work to grow our community as envisioned in the Comprehensive Plan.

For myself, it was a little painful to sit in those Town Council chambers and watch some random remarks about how a merged Town and County Planning and Building staff would be less efficient than two separate departments. It was a little painful to watch some make claims that the best interests of Town residents were served by continuing with a divided administration of our single little community.

So to those few adamant voices who argue against merging redundant Town and County services, I ask you this. What is your vision for the future of the community? I have heard your fears. I have heard your rejection of the logic of the merger proposal based upon small details that have yet to be worked out. I heard what might go wrong.

But, I don’t believe that I heard any vision for the future. I don’t believe that I heard any guiding plans or principles. Where are you leading us to?

Fear is not a future.

This disfunctionalities of the past do not inform a positive road map for tomorrow.

In life you always end up with one of two things: What works or the reasons why not.

The "conversation" that we are

I like to read the Pagosa Daily Post almost every day. The regular writers keep me up to date with what is going on in Pagosa Springs.

What particularly fascinates me is the "conversation" that the community of Pagosa Springs is.

Sometimes -- actually more often than not -- we as a community are a "conversation" that looks something like: everyone who ever takes on any position of leadership in our community needs to be destroyed.

It really is fascinating to watch and explore. Well, unless the news story of the day involves "you". When the "you" (that would be the "I" in your mind) gets involved then all of a sudden it is not so much fun and interesting but all of your painful whatevers are there ready to get triggered.

It looks like this might just be a local Pagosa Springs "conversation". But actually it is a national and an international conversation.

What happens every second day of a new U.S. presidency? The "impeach so-and-so" bumper stickers come out.

So, actually, this "conversation" is not local. It is the conversation that all of humanity is mired in.

But, like fish in water who do not know that water exists......almost none of us humans are aware that we "swim" in a "conversation" not of our own making. Most of us think that we are thinking the negative, critical thoughts. But actually the negative, critical, back stabbing thoughts are thinking us.

That is not just a poetic flourish. The greater conversation of humanity actually "thinks" for the individual. That is to say that we "individual" humans are born into and show up into an already known way of thinking and communicating.

So, here is the good news for you if you are the "target" of a critical story. It is actually not personal.

The critic thinks that they are thinking and writing a critical story about you. The gossip thinks that they are saying something unique. But, notice that most of the letters to the editor are also from the same school of "thinking"......about how other people are wrong and jerks and whatever. And, so, by necessity, the writer must be right or something.

Or at least, for sure, the "leader" must be destroyed or exposed or something.

The good news is that the "conversation" really isn't about you. The "conversation" was in place before you were even born. You were born into it.

This conversation permeates all aspects of human life. This is the conversation that you are with yourself (you know, that ugly chatter in your head). This is the conversation that we are as an intimate relationship. This is the conversation that we are as a town. This is the conversation that we are as a nation. It is a conversation of "no possibility". Roughly, it could be called the conversation of "everything, everywhere is hopeless".

But, the greater human conversation can be altered. Great leaders can do that. That is the fun part.

What I am writing about here is a call to personal responsibility. On any given day, in any given situation, the opportunity is to personally take full responsibility. I did not say "to take blame". To take full responsibility is to claim it. To take full responsibility is to claim and to be a stand for your own personal power. To "blame" is to give away your power. To "criticize" and to talk about the mistakes of "the leadership" is to pretend that you do not have any power to influence your community from whereever you are.

Just because the County Commissioners wear fancy hats or because the Town Councilors wear fancy badges does not mean that they have any more "power" to affect change in the community than either you or I. The true source of the "power" of a County Commissioner or of a Town Councilor comes from the fact that they show up every week and try to get something done. Showing up and taking action is the source of personal power.

But as a people, on this planet, we swim in a conversation that goes something like this. "I have no personal power. Someone else has the power. I can't really do anything to improve my situation and the situation of my community."

As a people, we reinforce the mistaken theory that power exists outside ourselves by "blaming" and finding "fault" in the "leadership". Finding fault and blame are the narcotic that keeps us each, individually, asleep to the power that we each have inside of ourselves.

What power did Rosa Parks have when she stepped onto a bus in a segregated south and demanded to sit where "the white folks" sat?

What power did Nelson Mandela have from the jail cell in South Africa where he was incarcerated for 25 years?

What power did women have to demand the right to vote?

What power did the American colonists have against a Britain which was the greatest military power in history at that time?

What power do you have to alter the shape of the local economy in Pagosa Springs?

What power do you have to influence an efficient merger of redundant County and Town services?

You have whatever power that you claim for yourself.

If you say that the power to run the community is outside of yourself, then you are right. If you say that you claim personal responsibility for the future of our community, then so you do.

More often than not, true vision, leadership, and change in a community comes from somewhere other than the "appointed leadership". True leadership comes from one or two people who take a stand.

True power comes from somebody showing up and taking action week in and week out.

So, to the critical, the naysayers, and the voices of doom I ask "so what?" Now, what exactly are you going to do about it?