MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Instead of watching the second to last episode of “Friends” Thursday, April 29, I taped it, got Grandma to come over and watch my four kids and decided to have a “community” conversation with Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon at the Mountlake Terrace Library.
I was a little intrigued after Reardon’s aide, Mark Funk, told me about the hand-held key pads they would use in the meeting to give input to Reardon and his team and then get the people in the room’s immediate feedback about their individual priorities for the County’s budget.
I asked Funk, “Like a game show?”
“Uh, yeah, — sort of,” he said.
So what the heck, I’m a Snohomish County resident, too, I’ll go through the process. While it wasn’t as exciting as the second to last episode of “Friends,” or as fulfilling as spending time with my four great children, it was definitely a benefit and worth my time.
And there is only one more time folks in South County can experience this local “game show.” The fifth and final “Community Conversation” with Reardon will be at 7 p.m., Monday, May 17 in Edmonds at the South Snohomish County Senior Center, 220 Railroad Avenue.
I arrived a few minutes early, so I could get a good seat. Signed in, got my name tag and was presented with my very own (for the evening) Group Interactive Feedback Technology (GIFT). Basically, it’s a keypad with numbers on it, a little bigger than my hand.
Roger Pawley, CEO of the Strategic Listening Institute who provided the county with a grant and was volunteering to collate the information in the computer, explained to the 50 or so participants how to use the little computer.
The first question that came up on the screen at the front of the room: “How are you doing?”
There were about five or six answer options, such as: “Terrific” press 1, “good” press 2, “Bad” press 3, “Don’t even ask” press 4” and so on.
When everyone was finished rating their mood, Pawley pressed a button on the computer and bam! there were our answers on the screen, letting everyone know 13 folks were “terrific,” “don’t ask” two people and others in between.
Next, we found out a majority were over 45 and we did have about eight or so teens. I’m not sure but I think they were there for some class credit.
We also found out that a majority of the people in the room weren’t comfortable speaking out in public forums. Well, I guess they probably appreciated this forum then, I thought. That question came, too, and a majority did appreciate Reardon’s Community Conversation style of forum. The faces in the crowd, weren’t those I normally see at these things. That was encouraging.
I was pleasantly surprised to see “the local newspaper” was where the majority got their news.
Then, we got to the budget.
I was actually amazed to see priorities were all over the board. I thought it might be predictable, like a majority would say public safety is the highest priority, but it wasn’t with this group.
By the way, if you don’t want your answers to be seen by the person sitting next to you, don’t sit close because the number you press on the keypad, does stay lit up for a moment.
In the meantime, Reardon explained details about particular priority questions and clarified confusions.
There was some confusion.
Some folks mentioned the questions were too broad and wanted to pull out particular priorities. One person wanted to see how the group would prioritize multi-cultural services while another focused on services for the disabled.
No problem for Pawley and he typed in the two separate priority questions and the group responded. The information went into the record for future consumption by Reardon’s camp, along with the rest of the 30 or so questions.
Edmonds resident Tom Miller, who sat next to me that night, said he didn’t like these items pulled out from the rest of the questions. “…it confuses things, they belong in the bigger categories,” Miller said.
Others agreed while others wanted more items separated.
I thought it was fair, the computer sorts out all of the information taken later and with statistics from our demographics and other complex fiddling with the information, the officials would be able to receive some real input. Not just comments from a few outspoken people who frequent these types of meetings.
One thing I thought to be discouraging about the process was that a lot people seemed to be guessing. Obviously, they know their priorities but some of the questions required some education about government process. In my experience as a reporter and editor, many people don’t know a lot about how all of that works.
Funk said he noticed that in the Mountlake Terrace meeting, which included a lot of people who live outside of that city, there was more interest in the education process of the Community Conversation” than some of the previous meetings.
“They asked very good questions and we were pleased with that,” Funk said. “And we hope the same will happen in Edmonds.”
After the key pad questions we were also given a theoretical $100 bill and told to separate it evenly throughout the long list of county services.
Some were concerned, “that $100 isn’t enough money.” I was just concerned I didn’t have a calculator.
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