ASHLAND, Ore. — The healing has begun in Ashland, the southern Oregon town where the City Council recently decided to pay $37,000 for five months of counseling with a naturopath.
So far, the council has had two Saturday sessions with Dr. Rick Kirschner of Ashland about team-building, attitudes, behavior and organizational skills.
The upshot:
The council zipped through its agenda Tuesday night and finished before its self-imposed deadline of 10:30 p.m. Usually, the council doesn’t finish its business by 10:30, so staff members and citizens waiting to talk to the council are turned away.
It had nine unanimous votes on policy issues.
Council member David Chapman, who has walked out of council meetings in frustration and publicly swore at another member in September, said he’s got a new approach to ideas he disagrees with: Instead of simply voting no, he offers an amendment to make the motion something he can support.
Mayor John Morrison said he’s using a technique suggested in the council’s training: As each new agenda item arises, he reminds the council members of the key question they need to decide.
“I think the way this meeting ran tonight, we’re already seeing results,” he said.
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