LOST service wasn’t lost time

In spring 2009 our community voted to tax itself to provide immediate, local funding to support our own to rebuild after the flood.

The ballot language for the local-option sales tax was aligned with our collective highest priorities - rebuilding homes and starting the long work of creating a permanent flood protection system.

The flood brought out the best in some ways, but also some of our community's darker fears - mistrust of government high among them. The Citizen Oversight Committee was added in to the sales tax deal made with taxpayers - some of our own on a committee to keep an eye on where that money was really being spent.

In truth, the committee was an after-the-fact review of what council had done. We would vote on whether we felt specific tax-supported programs met the ballot language. A 'no” vote carried no authority to change or influence the council decision.

This lack of 'teeth” was something that most of the committee members understood from the beginning. We felt compelled to serve anyway. It was a way for us to get a deeper understanding of the programs supported by tax dollars and the ways our government spent our money to help the citizenry post-flood.

We were honored to serve and took seriously our duty to the community.

We learned:

l The mechanics of city and state tax collection and distribution procedures,

l City accounting procedures - how to interpret the city financial reports,

l The details of each program, including

l The gap or need to be met, and

l Criteria for participation.

We held very candid discussions, bringing our individual perspectives and the feedback we had heard throughout our neighborhoods and networks. We listened with our brains and our hearts and learned from each other. We applied our best judgment as to each program's fit with our understanding of the ballot language.

There were some disagreements - the issues brought out many deep emotions and often were beyond the scope of our work. There were some vote reversals, when new information came to light. By and large it was a civil, thoughtful, earnest and authentic time of community service.

We gained new perspectives on the realities, choices and difficulties flood survivors truly endured. We grew our appreciation for the challenges facing the city staffers who were working with the federal government recovery processes, trying to help an emotional citizenry all while dealing with flooded offices, themselves.

Our time together was an opportunity to build relationships with each other, city staff and our council representative. Our meetings always were open to the public, recorded on video through the Neighborhood News Network (rekle@mchsi.com for archival requests) and the agendas and minutes are on the city's website http://bit.ly/1iCIo9N

There is huge power in getting small groups of people together in the spirit of service. It is, one could argue, the heart of democracy. We came together as strangers and part with a gratitude for the opportunity to have been of service to the community.

Our LOST time was definitely not lost time.

' Linda Seger, Chairwoman, Elizabeth Schott, Mike Dawson and Gary Ficken all were members of the LOST Citizen Oversight Committee. Contact:lsiglin44@hotmail.com