An Un-Pleasant Experience

By Duke Gomez-Schempp
Dot Gov Contributor

This week, the Cass County Board of Commissioners stifled the democratic rights of a group of people in rural North Dakota’s Pleasant Township. The group of 15 residents petitioned Cass County to de-annex their land from Cass County to Richland County. The group is unanimously dissatisfied with the Cass County leadership and asserts that their interests are not being heard concerning the flood diversion plan. The Cass County Commissioners swiftly squelched these residents’ opportunity to bring their issue to a public vote because they felt the residents represented a small group, when in reality, they represent a large amount of land mass in Cass County. The County stopped the petition request for de-annexation by relying on an obscure rule of government that allows the County Commission to be the gatekeepers on allowing this issue be on the ballot, so they denied the petition and prevented a public vote.

In viewing the past few months’ of governmental meetings filmed by The People’s Press Project, there have been several attempts by the public to exercise their constitutional right of addressing their grievances with the government. What is striking is how ineffective people are at exercising these rights. Not because the issues are frivolous, but how the elected governing bodies have structured themselves to be above the interests of the public. Most governmental entities work hard at discouraging people from approaching them. Many governing bodies dictate how, when and how long someone from the public may speak during their meetings. Agenda slots appear with time restrictions, instructions of what can and cannot be said and many times the people cannot speak to their government unless they were put on the agenda ahead of the meeting by processes unknown to the general public.

With this resistance to public accountability most constituents addressing their elected officials are not successful in being heard or seen in the process of Democracy. In Fargo-Moorhead, It is common place to see a group of concerned residents rarely able to affect the outcome of a policy discussed by their government. This is because the people in the community are not given an opportunity to have deep and constructive discussions on the issues that are important to them. The governmental bodies rely on Parliamentary procedures that keep them from fairly addressing the public while they are in the room. Most people get the impression that the issue had already been determined behind closed doors and out of the eye of public scrutiny. The city, county, state and federal government have done a good job in keeping people out of “their” business and out of sight. This erosion of accountability is very evident in local government proceedings. People addressing their government politely accept the prescribed rules of participation without question and many times become disgruntled which leads to them becoming apathetic and disillusioned in their political involvement.

Even though the residents of Pleasant Township had their petition denied by the Cass County Commission, they should keep up their fight for their desire to be represented fairly by the leaders who govern them. They need to be commended for participating in their governmental proceedings and keep pressuring elected officials to hear their grievance and take action in their favor.  In order to do that, they need to remain involved in holding their officials accountable to represent them. If that doesn’t happen, in 2012, Fifteen people may be working very hard to make sure they are represented by the two open County Commission seats in next year’s election.

For more information about the work of The People’s Press Project,
visit the PPP website at: http://www.ThePeoplesPressProject.org [http://tiny.cc/fmppp]

To view full-length meeting coverage of local governmental meetings go to: http://tiny.cc/local_government

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