The new year is all but here, and this curvy bird is in denial about the need to make a so-called resolution to lose some weight. Sure, I’m not as aerodynamic as I was a few ounces ago, but what I’ve lost in average air speed velocity I’ve gained in presence, amirite?
I’m starting to recognize, though, that I’ve been cutting out my fellow feathered friends who would lovingly tell me my physique is a bit, ahem, pigeonesque. Hindsight being what it is (we are entering 2020), I can see that I stopped attending my Feather Watchers group, I nixed my gal pals who only eat sprouted seeds, and I stopped reading my mom’s tweets about #flockgoals met for 2019.
But what kind of bird would I be if I kept ignoring input? A closed-minded one on an unhealthy flight path toward isolation and likely destruction.
I’ve got to credit Lompoc for some of my newfound self-reflection. The city, long beleaguered by budget issues, has taken a hard look at itself and is voting to lose some excess weight. No, the City Council is not giving itself pay cuts. It’s re-evaluating the role of the 11 volunteer-run commissions and committees that convene expressly to review city issues—such as public safety, parks and recreation, and senior citizens’ interests. Apparently it’s expensive to run such groups, costing upward of $116,000 a year.
“I think that the commissions all have a benefit to the city moving forward,” Lompoc Councilmember Victor Vega said. “However, we are in a budgetary crisis. We do have staff reductions, and we do need to value our time a little bit more and staff time.”
I get it: #metime, #selfcare.
But Lompoc’s plan is to lose a main vein of citizen input, save some money, and then what? Where will the newly saved portion of $116,000 go? And who will the city listen to? As if the City Council was even listening to its constituents and staff in the first place, amirite?
Apparently these commissions have been poorly attended, so on paper they look like an easy way to cut calories, I mean dollars.
But Lompoc Councilmember Gilda Cordova shared the inside scoop on why participation on the Economic Development Committee was low—when she served on the committee, it was “disheartening” because it seemed like the City Council didn’t want to hear the committee’s recommendations. She also said that lack of participation is a symptom of the unhealthy City Council vibe that’s come from its policy decisions.
“Everything we ever talk about is cutting, cutting, cutting,” Cordova said. “So why would our public want to participate and be part of such an aggressive … route to constantly cut our services?”
Cordova, the newest on the City Council, has the experience to bring actual insight to the very body that made its commission volunteers feel disheartened. Now that she’s on that very body, she’s ideally situated to enact some positive change to benefit Lompoc “moving forward,” but she’s in the minority on the council that’s done lots of cutting, cutting, cutting.
So, if I followed Lompoc’s weight loss plan, I could take the few bucks I spend on attending Feather Watchers meetings—where I weigh in, get accountability, and have access to the tools I need to be aware of my daily intake and how that affects my well-being—and spend that money on what? Low-cal birdseed?
The only New Year’s resolution the canary’s ever kept was to never make another resolution. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 26, 2019 – Jan 2, 2020.