BY NEALE PICKETT
Los Alamos

When my family moved into our first house back around 2000, my new neighbor advised me that if I ever wanted anything changed, I should just go to council at the last minute with some friends. It took me a few years to piece together that this person was a county employee, and had probably just watched weeks or months of work fizzle at a council meeting when some of the public showed up to complain about it.

Years later, I watched a petition with six signatures kill a project that had been months in the making. I had spent hours working with the county and civil engineers in public meetings and focus groups, trying to find consensus among those who cared enough to show up. And then, in 1 hour, it was all gone.

I joined a board as a consequence, hoping I could help. One of the signers of that petition joined the same board, for the same reason. We were both hoping we could help the county avoid this situation. We were both trying to help, and we worked with each other to find common ground. I was elected by that board as the chair, and did what I could to run helpful meetings and communicate outcomes to council. We both resigned before our terms were up, frustrated that the board itself was pointless.

I don’t propose to have any grand insight into how politics in this town work, nor do I have any ideas about how to finally fix things once and for all. I’m only writing to say that Mr. Wernicke’s observations about declining service on boards and commissions exactly mirrors my experience.

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