Comments on: Greg Stratton Speaks! http://www.votesimivalley.com/2008/12/greg-stratton-speaks/ Rock the Vote in Simi Valley Election 2008 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:05:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Greg Stratton http://www.votesimivalley.com/2008/12/greg-stratton-speaks/comment-page-1/#comment-110 Greg Stratton Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:09:05 +0000 http://www.votesimivalley.com/?p=208#comment-110 The Board President has two sources of power. The first is control of the agenda. There are lots of items that should be on the agenda to be discussed openly that never make it. There are many items that never see the light of day because it would be hard to support what the district is doing if the public actually knew. I saw issues simply get stalled and not return even when scheduled. If you like the status quo, don't have any agenda items for discussion. Second, is the power to give direction to the staff. Never really defined, the President has three votes to get the job, and so has some very implicit authority. All superintendants learn to count to three very quickly, or they don't survive very long. So the President has some real clout. It is interesting to note that this means that the board is now divisive. I found that is the word used when you don't agree with them. There are five board members so that you can have discussions from different perspectives and try to find the best solution. Those discussions happen all the time on the City Council, and they are expected and encouraged. Not all votes are 5-0. Not so on the Board, where everyone has to march in lock step or be considered mean spirited. Interesting that the majority is now the divisive group. How can that be? The Board President has two sources of power. The first is control of the agenda. There are lots of items that should be on the agenda to be discussed openly that never make it. There are many items that never see the light of day because it would be hard to support what the district is doing if the public actually knew. I saw issues simply get stalled and not return even when scheduled. If you like the status quo, don’t have any agenda items for discussion.

Second, is the power to give direction to the staff. Never really defined, the President has three votes to get the job, and so has some very implicit authority. All superintendants learn to count to three very quickly, or they don’t survive very long. So the President has some real clout.

It is interesting to note that this means that the board is now divisive. I found that is the word used when you don’t agree with them. There are five board members so that you can have discussions from different perspectives and try to find the best solution. Those discussions happen all the time on the City Council, and they are expected and encouraged. Not all votes are 5-0.

Not so on the Board, where everyone has to march in lock step or be considered mean spirited. Interesting that the majority is now the divisive group. How can that be?

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