Vital Tedium Democracy buried in an avalanche of minutiae. BY RON CHASE "A" or "the." That is the question of the moment. The committee staff person outlines what she thinks it should be and why, the committee spends a few minutes discussing the difference, makes a decision, and moves on. This is government at its grassroots finest. Far from the fiery oratory, back-room billion dollar deals and massive corruption in our nation's capital, the small group of citizens who compose the "Joint Committee Meeting: Police Auditor and Civilian Review Board Policy Teams" quietly go about their business. At the table sit the chair of the police auditor committee, a retired educator, the chair of the civilian review board policy development committee, who works for LTD, committee members including a Lane County legislator, a Eugene city councilwoman, a real estate appraiser, and the committee staff person who is assigned to the Police Commission. A city councilman-elect comes, listens for a while, and leaves. Also present is the chair of the Police Commission who is there as an observer, a couple of city staff people, and two of Eugene's finest, union reps with a strong vested interest in the outcome. They alternately smile at one another and look as if they are about to get a couple of teeth pulled. Completing the cast is a woman I recognize from many previous police-related meetings, a minutes taker, and yours truly. For the first half of the meeting one of the city attorneys is also present, offering advice on wording for the ordinance which will implement Ballot Measure 20-106 dealing with external complaints involving police employees. "I like option 2.5, which is mostly option 2 with part of option 1," drones the attorney. "I think we should call this option 3," states the retired educator. The recommendations made by this group, itself a combination of two other sub-committees, will be passed up the chain of command to the full Police Commission, vetted by Human Resources and the city's legal team, and eventually wind its way to the City Council that will put it all together in the form of an ordinance. At the time of the meeting, it has been six months since the ballot measure passed and will be at least another six months before the process is up and functioning. Most of the people in this room already have hundreds of hours invested in this process beginning long before the issue ever made it on the ballot. My mind starts to wander. A couple of thoughts visit briefly and move on. Lest anyone believe I am writing this to ridicule these people or this process, nothing could be further from the truth. This is the bedrock of democracy. On a beautiful summer evening when most of the city is enjoying the benefits of living in this wonderful place, these True Believers grind on with the city's work, without compensation other than a couple of city-purchased pizzas and some drinks, unnoticed. At this moment my admiration extends to even the two union reps, with whom I probably agree on nothing, at least with regard to this issue. My other thought is less complimentary. How did governing and government become so tedious, so complicated and so detail oriented? I have been watching a series on the History Channel about the American Revolution. What twisted path led us from those heady days of idealistic proclamations and spirited debate to this mind-numbing parsing of every word in every document? How can we ever keep the public interested in participating in governing when doing so requires hours of meetings such as this? While I realize it is impossible to maintain the passion of revolutionary fervor while attending to the nuts and bolts of governing, there must be an in-between place that is less mindnumbing. And to be fair, when the committee gets to the issue of staffing the auditor's office, a decision which is still controversial, passion does arise in a flurry of angry words and uneasy agreement to discuss the issue with the entire Police Commission. I have only questions, not answers. I do know that unless we can add some vitality, some life to this process, the day is fast approaching when engaging people such as the fine people in this room in the grunt work of governing will become impossible. Then it won't matter what words we settle on because the democracy we all cherish so much will have buried itself in an avalanche of minutiae. By the way, they settled on "the." Ron Chase of Eugene is a community member who has advocated for a police review board for over 15 years. He identifies himself as part of the problem identified in the essay. "After all, I was there, too," he says.
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