Spain’s ‘town hall’ meeting raises eyebrows, but seems on the up-and-up to me
This email is the more lucid of two I’ve received on the subject:
Why is it that no bloggers are writing about the Mayor using city offices, technology, and resources to campaign for Ryan Spain? Last Wednesday Ardis and Spain called thousands of Peorians for a “town hall meeting” from the city’s Economic Development Office in One Tech Plaza. The other nine candidates were not included and taxpayer dollars were used in this effort. This is not only unethical, but also illegal. I understand he PJS stonewalling this indictment of one of their chosen, even as the state Board of Elections investigates, but I though surely some blogger would scoop them on this issue. I am disappointed that neither you nor the Peoria Chronicle has picked up on this.
Here’s what I found out: This was an “electronic town hall” meeting — essentially a huge conference call — organized and paid for entirely by Ryan Spain. No city money was used. Spain decided who would participate, and these people were called and given an opportunity to participate or decline. Those who did was able to offer input on the issues being discussed — a big topic was crime, I hear. Participants could also be polled on their opinions.
This wasn’t an activity sponsored or endorsed by any government agency, including the City of Peoria. Mayor Ardis had every right to participate, because he didn’t surrender his free speech rights when he was sworn into office. I have no problem with his participating, and wouldn’t even if he were doing so on behalf of someone I didn’t endorse.
Did Spain organize this to get his name and improve his chances of winning election to the Peoria City Council. No doubt he did. There’s nothing wrong with that. I would applaud Mr. Spain for using technology to interact with taxpayers.
Mayor Ardis thinks there might be opportunities for the city to use this system to do something similar to quantify the public’s sentiment on other big issues, should the need arise. It’s not a bad idea, but I hope this sort of thing never replaces real, face-to-face interaction.
Conclusion: I think the complaints are mostly due to people upset that they didn’t think of this first. The Board of Elections might have a different conclusion, and if they do, I’ll print it. But I doubt they will object.
By the way: I think the term “town hall” is overused and somewhat misleading in that it implies some official status. I could rent out the community center here at Kingspark Estates and hold a “town hall” meeting, and it would carry no official weight at all. But it is used because it evokes a sense of old-style small-town democracy.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Kingspark Estates has a community center? Who wouldn’t thunk.
Um, the city’s economic development department isn’t in One Technology Plaza (its in City Hall). Workforce Network is there, and I believe anyone can rent the conference room. I doubt those opposed are mad about being “one-upped” but would rather try to throw a little mud right before the election.
and Amen.
“even as the State Board of Elections investigates”
I hope for this persons sake they aren’t the idiot who phoned in the supposed complaint since it was all funded by Spain’s campaign and not in a city office. Man get your facts straight before throwing out accusations like that. You obviously have no clue.
I got the Ryan Spain phone call and didn’t answer because the phone number on my caller id was a Maryland number not a Peoria number. I guess I didn’t realize our ecomonic development office was in Maryland.
I thought the same thing, Hula.
Was there not a business in Peoria who could have handled this?
I hung up also.
I was at the teleconference center during the town hall meeting. It was organized and funded by Spain’s campaign. there were no tax dollars used. It was at workforce development not city offices. The questions were real, not staged from campaign people. It was a gamble. It is using new technology. Telephone numbers were chosen from registered voters who had their phone numbers registered. Another company was paid to do the actual dialing. They had a screen on a laptop connected to a projector on the wall. You got to see the numbers of people participating, the number of messages left, etc. When people were asked to use their keypads to answer questions, the numbers showed up in real time. This has great potential for use, in my opinion, for other ways to get public input. Possible public forums to weigh in on issues and to give instant feedback to the leaders on community issues. Other cities use their reverse 911 system to make a variety of public service calls and this can be targeted to specific areas, E.G. a 2nd district issue could be put to just the second district residents and that feedback given to the councilperson and eventually to the entire council. Howeer if that system were available, a number of folks would have complained that public property was used for a campaign. The federal candidates used something similiar in a virtual town meeting just the night before.
This is why Ryan Spain needs to be in office. New technologies, new ideas. I don’t think it should replace face to face meetings and I don’t believe that the intent would be, but for those who would like to give feedback and particpate, it would be a much more convienent method than finding a babysitter, hopping two buses or heck even trying to find a parking place downtown to attend a public forum. One of my own frustrations has been that I may not be able to escape from work to participate in some forums that I greatly would have liked to, or have had conflicting schedules with other events.
Again, this was a test run to see what kind of response was given over 1200 people were particiapting in the questions, about 5000 total participants if I read the screens correctly, far more than any public meeting. A test run that cost the city NOTHING. That city officials can learn from for FREE, and set an example that can be evaluated and perhaps reformulated and made better. I was impressed. It took some work to set this up. Does anyone want a council person who will NOT work? (actually i guess some do judging by the some endorsements…)
At the end of the teleconference the participants could leave a voice mail with thier questions. Ryan Spain has been working diligently since then to get the questions answered. He said he would respond in a timely manner and has. Some current folks haven’t answered an email or phone call in years. This type of hard work is needed on our coucil. Words alone haven’t been successful in changing the status quo over the years. It’s time for action.
We need this type of leadership as one part of the council. There is no mud to sling except in desparation. Some of the cheap shots are causing voters to dump a couple of candidates. Am guessing that in their arrogance, they will hardly notice. Nothing is more wasteful than a viable candidate who can’t or won’t get anything done. We have some of those running. Apparantly some did not learn from the last state race on how to run a campaign.
More of our leaders need to take the time to solicit and listen to our opinions. This goes across the board, Council, school, park board. We would be in better straits if they did and would have some of the debacles we do.
I got the call and has I was listening to the recorded message explaining the call, it stopped, then a click, then I got a message saying “I’m sorry, you missed the town hall meeting.” It then disconnected. Not a perfect technology.
Em,
that was one of the glitches. a few people were bumped off. There were some other problems noted, but again, with a pilot there are bugs and one can learn from the experience to make it better the next time. I had some phone calls during the event noting people were bumped off and was able to give out the number and code for people to redial in. Another thought was there needs to be a local or 1-800 number to reconnect if dropped. Not sure if local companies are doing the same thing yet. I believe not yet.