Archive: Opinions

We made it another year!  This is the Lansing Star's 14th anniversary issue.  We're not doing anything special to celebrate, but we did spend three minutes talking about it the other night (the actual anniversary was Sunday, but we publish Fridays, and July 21 was a Friday in 2005 when we cranked out our first issue).  But I have been thinking about the boring side of local reporting and how technology helps.

For example, every time an auditor comes to speak to a municipal board I am thankful for the Kindle app on my phone, because I can catch up on my reading without being obvious about it.  The same when boards go through the endless SEQR (environmental review) questionnaire for any new projects they are considering for approval.

SEQRs are the worst -- if I feel I could almost recite them by heart, imagine how the elected officials feel.  There is nothing preventing them from taking a straw poll beforehand to see if anyone things the result will be anything but a negative declaration of environmental impact (as in medical tests, negative is a good thing. A negative declaration, 'neg def' as they seem to like to abbreviate it, means there will be no significant environmental impact caused by a project, and therefore, once the project gets its site plan approved it's good to go.) and if everyone agrees simply vote on the whole thing as one would with a 'consent agenda'.

But elected officials are either misinformed about the requirement, or, as I believe, they take perverse pleasure in reading the bloody things aloud, point by point, before voting that it is a neg def.  They abbreviate the term, but not the process.  Yawn.

Planning Boards are particularly difficult for me.  They seemingly endlessly discuss minute details of a project, like a sign that is one square foot above the municipal sign regulation requirements, or how moving a berm might create a stream overflow, or why a new garage has to be 15 feet from the property line, not 12 feet...

But here's the thing.  They say 'the Devil is in the details'.  Once I get over the wave of boredom, having to pay attention in order to pick out newsy nuggets, I think to myself, "Wow, I could never be on a planning board (or town board or school board) because I don't have the patience!  But if these people don't do it who will?  And if nobody did it, what would our community be like?  It wouldn't be nearly as nice as it is if nobody cared about the details.  That Devil is awfully good at hiding behind the minutia, and if careful municipal authorities don't look inside every crevice he'd be free to wreak havoc.  (That's his job.)

When I quit teaching I made myself a promise: I would never allow myself to be part of any committee as long as I live.  Committee work was my least favorite part of teaching, and I was happy to be done with it.

Little did I realize that I would become a reporter who has to sit through ALL the meetings and I don't even get to vote!  Still, after 14 years of listening to hundreds of SEQR questionnaires, audit reports and countless long discussions over minute issues, I have to salute our elected and appointed officials who do this work.  That ol' Devil isn't staying in Lansing, that's for sure, and it's because of the long hours and careful consideration of the people on our municipal boards.

So keep doing this work, folks, and don't worry about me.  I always have a good book!

v15i28