The City Council so-called “Norms and Values” are hollow rhetoric. It likely will be utilized as another weapon that the City will use to “bully” citizens and stakeholders into irrational “groupthink.” The City needs to have robust, open discourse about many important planning decisions that will are now underway that the will re-define downtown Livermore and the rest of the community for the remainder of the 21st century. If the “Norms and Values” become “weaponized,” I suspect that fewer men and women of talent and ability would want to serve on City commissions, out of fear of being publicly removed and humiliated for no good reason other than the City’s “Norms and Values” were violated, in the irrational judgment of a transitory Council majority. Beware especially of the term “equity lens.” It is very vague and amorphous.
The City Council so-called “Norms and Values” are hollow rhetoric. It likely will be utilized as another weapon that the City will use to “bully” citizens and stakeholders into irrational “groupthink.” The City needs to have robust, open discourse about many important planning decisions that will are now underway that the will re-define downtown Livermore and the rest of the community for the remainder of the 21st century. If the “Norms and Values” become “weaponized,” I suspect that fewer men and women of talent and ability would want to serve on City commissions, out of fear of being publicly removed and humiliated for no good reason other than the City’s “Norms and Values” were violated, in the irrational judgment of a transitory Council majority. Beware especially of the term “equity lens.” It is very vague and amorphous.