CAP it off

The Oct 13th Planning Commission hearing rolled on most of the day covering the Climate Action Plan with County staff AND representatives from the firm who produced the template (don't believe they were there last time).

There were emails urging the brokers and agents to go parrot the state and national association "DON'T even think of a point of sale component"dogma, but not many showed up or even knew about the hearing or cared. What the state and national association continue to miss is that if you do someones thinking for them and discourage any discussion of alternative views, the organization presents a nicely integrated front, but individuals within the organization are often loath to get up at a microphone and speak on a topic they really haven't thought through themselves. Now there are the political ladder climbers who, after drinking copiously from the barrel of Kool Aid, will get up and fervently support trade association doctrine till the red light goes on. Sure enough, those folks are rewarded by moving up the fabled leadership ladder. Are those the people who should be in leadership--the faithful tools of the party line? Where are the artists? In other professions!

This unfortunate pattern is clearly consistent with organizations in both the public and private sector. How many people think for themselves? It's so easy to let someone else think for us. Thinking is --why, it's almost like work!

I'm reading a book on subjective well being that is pretty heavy going with chapters delving into the history and philosophy of human social structure. The idea that all members of a society shared an interest in  governance was NOT pervasive throughout history. Often there was an elite class--defined by blood, wealth, etc and the worker bees, raising the point of how authentic the opportunity is for an individual to change his or her future through participation in the process. Put another way Wall Street tends to control Wall Street regardless of protests or government intervention (mostly orchestrated by people who used to work on Wall Street). We'll see what long term effect results from the Occupy movement.

I did listen to some of the afternoon's discussion of the CAP on streaming video. Mostly, I was impressed, or maybe distressed would be a better word, at the lack of scholarship displayed---by everyone. County Staff knew some stuff, the representatives from the CAP template firm knew some stuff, The Planning Commissioners knew some stuff too.  Problem was that no one REALLY had a thorough understanding of the document or the subject matter being discussed, much less the collateral and downstream implications of approval. This has been a long process at County Staff level. It has been fast tracked as far as the public is concerned--to avoid too much input or scrutiny.  Conduct a couple of workshops that are poorly attended, then zip through Planning Commission to be followed by the Board--who may well get the rubber stamp out, deferring to the intensive "work" of the Planning Commission.

In the end there were a lot of questions about a lot of issues that were not answered--because the expertise present in that room on Thursday was a mile wide and about an inch deep. Put it this way---if ANY of those people were up before a Doctoral Committee taking their orals on that CAP, NONE would have had to rent a cap and gown.

What does that say about the process? A college kid trying to get a Ph.D. is held to a higher standard of scholarship than a whole ROOM of highly paid professional staff and consultants and appointed representatives of the supervisorial districts that have been working on this for MONTHS. The document will affect property values, energy use and the lives of every resident of the entire county for years--maybe decades. The results will exert some degree of impact on the future of the entire planet. So who decided to leave out the scholarship?

AND the answer is another question. Where's the accountability? If the CAP is bad because a number of people performed poorly in their positions, what happens? Pretty much NOTHING. They go on getting paid, or serving their appointed positions or writing more one size fits all templates for sale to Counties who don't care to create their own--because they couldn't

Our nation in microcosm.

Now, I'm not holding myself up as an expert on the CAP. I've scanned it enough to know what's there and that those at the hearing should know more about what's there than they do.

I did create a document containing some actual plans for improving the energy efficiency of the County's housing stock. Simple permutations and combinations. That's the part that falls under implementation and they are not really talking about that much, YET--that's the whammy down the road. Then, they'll say, but this whammy is consistent with the CAP, so it's OK.

There is little apparent concern about the planet in an environment defined by staying in office, moving to a higher status or maintaining a position until retirement and robust benefits.