HOW TO MAKE AN IMPACT

 

What does a homegrown citizen movement look like?

Jefferson County, West Virginia is a rural county located 60 miles northwest of Washington, DC.  It is known for being the location of John Brown’s Raid and other significant events in American history.  Tourists flock to enjoy breathtaking scenery. 

Jefferson’s neighbor, Loudoun County, Virginia, is America’s fastest growing county.  In the late 1980s, land speculators swarmed into Jefferson County viewing its untouched farmland as a developer gold mine.

The speculators were welcomed into Jefferson County by “Court House” insiders.  This web of family and business elites had run Jefferson since the Civil War. Elected and appointed officials had grown arrogant, unaccountable, and out of touch with the citizens they were supposed to serve.  By the late 1990s, they were about to leverage their unchallenged power to reap the riches of urban sprawl.

In 1998, the developers briefly exposed their agenda by presenting a master plan to run water and sewer lines throughout the Jefferson County, literally laying the groundwork for explosive growth.  Local officials embraced the plan.  More importantly, they shut down public comment and held countless meetings without involving, or even informing, the public. 

The water and sewer master plan, and the blatant abuse of power by the Court House elite, were the sparks that ignited one of the most successful local reform movements in America.

A dozen concerned citizens mapped out a strategy to create a “level playing field”.  This meant opening-up public meetings to the public; making public documents readily available to the public; making sure elected and appointed officials served public, not private, agendas, and making sure the rule of law prevailed. 

The first step was creating an information network so the diverse and geographically dispersed concerned citizens could communicate and share knowledge.  The “Listener” website and forum quickly grew to 1,000 participants.  It spawned home-based gatherings to discuss what to do.  One group, the “Sewer Underground” met bi-weekly and focused on stopping the water/sewer lines.

As local officials flaunted their conflicts of interest, it became clear that only by electing “reform minded” candidates would things change.  Reformers ran classified ads in the local newspapers to recruit candidates.  In 2000, one answered the call.

This first candidate had never run for office, in fact she broke out in sweats when speaking publicly.  She ran for County Commissioner against a well-financed and well-connected member of the Court House elite.  She lost, but inspired others.

In 2002, “Citizens for Jefferson’s Future” ran another set of ads for candidates.  This time they fielded a complete slate for the School Board and for two County Commission seats.  They won them all.  Their 2000 losing candidate was one of the landslide winners for the School Board, ending years of nepotism and sole source contracting.

In 2004, Jennifer Maghan, a recently returned veteran, answered the ad for County Clerk.  She was interviewed by reform leaders at the local Dairy Queen.  It was a critical moment.  The longest serving clerk in West Virginia was retiring and the Court House elites wanted complete control of voting and public records.  The local media consistently supported the Court House candidates and denigrated the reformers.

Jennifer was outspent 10-1, but her charismatic personality and the 2002 momentum won the day.  The reformers also won another County Commission seat achieving a 3-2 majority.  Jennifer became the first Republican to become Jefferson County Clerk since the county was formed in 1803.  She also became the first Korean-American to be elected to public office in West Virginia’s history.

Emboldened by two series of victories that shocked the Court House elite, the reformers moved swiftly to revolutionize the County’s government, digitalizing documents, creating websites, and ushering in the most open and transparent government in the state.

Battles were won, but the war continued.  The developers created their own Political Action Committee (PAC) and hired consultants.  They fought their way back into a County Commission majority in 2008. 

Thankfully in 2010, Jennifer was re-elected by the largest margin in the county’s history.  She was catapulted to national prominence by turning her opponents attack, “stop stirring the pot”, into her campaign symbol.  Her ads went viral and were merchandized as t-shirts. They became iconic in the battle to topple the Court House elite.  It bolstered the election of a reform-minded judge, who won by a landslide.

In 2014, a veteran was recruited to run for County Commission.  He was the first candidate to exclusively use Facebook to achieve victory.  That same year, the reformers recruited two faith-based House of Delegate candidates.  Both became the “gold standard” for door-to-door campaigning. One won and one lost.  The one who lost ran for State Senate in 2016 and won, having been outspent 21-1!

2016 was the landslide year for the reformers.  They won everything.  Two Commissioners, a new Clerk (as Jennifer retired), all state legislative seats in the County, and for the first time since the County was formed in 1803, a Republican County Prosecutor.

Today, Jefferson County remains a model for open accountable government and citizen activism. 

The lessons are numerous:

•      Have a strategy.
•          Have a committed core of leaders who will remain involved for years.
•      Realize that it will take years to sustainably prevail.
•      Actively recruit candidates. Do not depend on party functionaries.
•      Always look for new candidates as elected ones will retire or run for other offices.  Never let the other side’s candidates run unopposed.

·        One way to recruit and credential candidates is appoint them to local boards and commissions (planning, emergency service, parks & recreations, etc.).  Serving on these panels is a great way to learn about government processes, running meetings, public speaking, and messaging.

•         Losses are inevitable.  Learn and regroup.
•         Good candidates and good issues will live to win another day.
•      The opposition will not give up and will fight back.
•      Combine technology (social media) with traditional actions (door-to-door).
•      Money matters but mobilizing volunteers and igniting “fervor” among your supporters matter more.

MOST IMPORTANT:

Deliver on your promises.  Voters want change – give it to them.

 

 

Pat McCrory’s Weird Science

This was published in the News Observer

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/04/30/2860925/denrs-new-mission-takes-wrong.html

By Scot Faulkner & Jonathan Riehl

There was a time when Republicans embraced Earth Day, established the Environmental Protection Agency, and considered stewardship of the environment a cornerstone of assuring America’s future. Those days now seem very far away as Republicans, including Governor McCory, are increasingly rejecting environmental protection and empirical science.

Prior to McCory becoming Governor, North Carolina had a solid reputation for environmental stewardship. This stewardship was grounded in constructive engagement between two co-equal state agencies. The Department of Commerce (DC) is the welcome mat and advocate for new and expanding businesses. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is the enforcer of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), and the advocate for those impacted by the externalities of new and expanding businesses. Each agency has a noble mission that benefits the state now and into the future. Pure environmentalism can hamper the creation of economic opportunity and job growth. Pure economic development can permanently scar a landscape, cause harm to people’s health, and eradicate qualities of life and community that attract business.

Therefore, a balance must be struck between competing interests and missions. The role of the EC and DENR are to prepare their best briefs and constructively engage interested parties, and the public at large, to help determine this balance, while articulating the trade-offs that inevitably occur when competing interests interact.

The DENR, prior to Governor McCrory had a straightforward mission statement that supported this effort: “To conserve and protect North Carolina’s natural resources and to maintain an environment of high quality by providing valuable services that consistently support and benefit the health and well-being of all citizens of our state.”

When McCory became Governor the DENR revised its mission statement to fundamentally change its role. The changes are significant and deserve attention from anyone, regardless of party, who cares about science and conservation. This revision, by new DENR Secretary, John Skvarla (McCrory’s appointee), marks a terrible change in direction for a state department, but has received only limited media attention.

The new mission statement alters the very definition of science. The DENR document now tells us that science “contains diversity of opinion” and “all public programs and scientific conclusions must be reflective of input from a variety of legitimate, diverse and thoughtful perspectives.”

Not so. Science is not based on “opinion” or “thoughtful perspectives.” Science contains a body of knowledge arrived at through testing and experimentation. Ironically, this is what conservative thought -- in politics and policy in general -- has always emphasized. Now we are told any perspective, regardless of its having been tested, deserves equal time.

Second, the new mission statement emphasizes “cost-benefit analysis” in environmental policy. The damages caused by bad environmental policy are not calculable in immediate terms in the same way an actuary determines how much a new car depreciates when it leaves the lot. Environmental damage is long term and affects not only the resources available to future generations, but also our national heritage. There can be no “cost-benefit” consideration of the Great Smoky Mountains, Outer Banks beaches, or Civil War historic sites protected from mining, foresting, or other development. How many dollars is it worth to take your family to these parks? What is the true value of sites that define our state and national identity?

Third, the McCrory administration redefines the DENR as a “service organization.” It is not. The Department is a regulatory body charged with enforcing laws, including the federal rules of the Environmental Protection Agency. The clear implication of the McCrory version suggests nullification of federal law -- that the DENR will “service” the political choices of the Governor, not enforce the law. Governor McCrory and Secretary Skvarla should remember that the DENR’s environmental regulatory powers are delegated to them by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2001, EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, President Bush’s Republican appointee, stripped this delegation from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, and directly managed the state’s enforcement process, to prevent the state agency from becoming a doormat for developers. This could be the remedy in North Carolina should the McCrory/Skvarla vivisection of environment law and science continues.

Pat McCrory -- who has portrayed himself as a moderate -- is sending dangerously extreme signals to the new conservative radicals who want pander to anti-conservationist extremists.

The two authors here have different political perspectives, but value the real conservative legacy of responsible governance and custodianship of our planet. These new radical “conservatives” (we use quotation marks intentionally) should not be allowed to highjack that legacy. In the words of this new DENR mission statement we detect a highjacking in progress, emblematic of the larger self-destruction of the real conservative movement.

Scot Faulkner was Personnel Director for Reagan-Bush and the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. Jonathan Riehl, J.D., Ph.D., is a communications consultant for political campaigns and national nonprofit organizations and former speechwriter for Luntz Research, and instructor in Communications Studies.

A Real Energy Solution

Americans are struggling with paying higher prices at the pump. Regular unleaded could be over $4.00 a gallon by summer. Such rises in fuel costs are already affecting food costs and will undoubtly shrink summer vacation travel.

Politicians, as usual, are scrambling to show how much they are concerned about higher gas prices and their impact on average Americans. They are using this “gas crisis” to unearth and promote a wide array of ideological stock answers. Liberals want to investigate and tax oil company executives; conservatives want to drill in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Neither will solve our nation’s short-term or long-term energy needs.

America is facing the historic expansion of the global economy. The fall of the Soviet Empire and the rise of the information age put two hundred national economies in play. This is the “flat earth” written about over the last decade. People in emerging economies all aspire to have the same consumer goods and lifestyles as America and other major western economies. That means cars, appliances, and electronics. These all require energy. More cars mean gasoline is going to continue to be used by more and more automobiles in more and more countries. Competition for consumption means a permanent rise in prices, both worldwide and in America.

America’s drivers shifting to bio fuels or hydrogen are years away. However, there is a more immediate, as well as long-term solution - teleworking. According the a report just released by the AeA (formerly the American Electronics Association) 1.35 billion gallons of fuel worth $4.5 billion at current prices of $3.33 per gallon could be saved if everyone with the potential to telework did so just 1.6 days per week. The Environmental Protection Agency calculates that this much saved fuel would prevent 26 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, only 24 million, or 16.3 percent, of the 147 million professionals in America are teleworking more than a few days a month. The rest are not teleworking at all!

Teleworking, or telecommuting, has been underutilized since the dawn of the information age. 21st Century managers and business owners, instead of embracing telework, have held onto 1950’s “command & control” management dogma. This nearly sixty-year-old mindset states that workers can only be productive if they are hunched over their desks. Another part of this mindset is that you, as a boss, are only in control if you can watch these workers being hunched over their desks.

The result of this ancient management approach is that millions of people jump into their cars and fight rush hour traffic just to sit in front of computers and make telephone calls. They could do this from their home, but most bosses refuse to move into the 21st Century. This mindset is also focuses on “activity” instead of “results”, thereby crippling the productivity of the American economy.

The Congress continues to promote teleworking legislation related to government employees, but it has not provided effective tax incentives to private employers. Teleworking would solve many issues regarding Americans with Disabilities Act and Civil Rights Act compliance, family and medical leave, the multiple time zones of the global economy, and the need for more highways. It is time for politicians to break free from stock ideological answers and find ways to move managers and business owners into the 21st Century. Our fuel bills and our lungs will both get a break when they do…