Time to start looking forward
So I have to say that I felt a bit of joy when I saw that Marie Gilmore had pulled papers for the upcoming city council race. While I haven’t always agreed with her (Lennar? Really?) I have always been impressed with her willingness to understand the issues and vote to do “the right thing” even when it’s not the popular thing.
I’ve heard comments over the years about Gilmore “never saying anything” and while not widespread, I’ve typically come to believe that these are comments made by someone who doesn’t watch the meetings. Gilmore is economical in her speaking, choosing not to say “I agree with councilmember X and then launching into a speech that duplicates things that have been said.” She’s learned the art of building on the comments that have been made, acknowledging how they compare to her own thoughts and then zeroing in on what she feels is the essence of an issue.
Many current and past councilmembers could learn a lot from this.
Anyone who’s sat on a board, commission, council, steering committee, etc. knows how easy it is for discussions to head off down tangents and at the end of the day, the meeting ends having not dealt with the initial issue. You know, take: banningskateboarding in the parking garage which quickly becomes bike riding on sidewalks, hey, parks have sidewalks, let’s ban biking in parks. And Vote! (of course this is one issue, where nobody piped up except the city attorney, but it’s a good example). Marie has been important in understanding core-issues and making sure that they are not forgotten in the larger discussion. She patiently waits for the grandstanding, long-windness, and over-talking to complete, and then often steps up offers clarity. She’s not the only one who does this, but she’s probably the most consistent. (I say this as one who talks too much,” I don’t mean to demean the other councilmembers, unless they’re ramblers, then I wish they’d focus a bit and take some effective speaking adult classes).
Marie is respectful and direct. I love that. She’ll meet with anyone, talk about anything, and at the end of the meeting, you know where she stands. No mumbo jumbo spewed to make it sound like she agrees with you just to avoid the appearance of disagreement. Never have I spoken with her (or heard from anyone who has) where they felt that Marie said one thing on the phone and voted differently at the dais.
This isn’t to say that she’s inflexible or pigheaded. Take the Lennar example. She believed, as she said during the meetings that the city needed to look to commercial development in order to stave off declining tax collection in Alameda. Lennar’s strength is commercial, so she supported them. When it was clear that she was the only one who supported Lennar, she worked through a number of ideas to see if she could find middle ground with the councilmembers who had different ideas, all while holding strong to her key concerns. In the end she joined Tam and deHaan in supporting SunCal, which in the end appears to have been the most stable (which isn’t necessarily saying much) choice of the bunch.
City Council isn’t a popularity contest, well, ok, getting elected is the very definition of popularity contest, it’s a public service. We elect people as representatives based on their core values. Gilmore’s core values are a combination of fiscal realism (four years ago, she ran saying that Alamedans were headed for a choice of increasing money for police and fire, or seeing services cut. She was the only during that race) and an understanding of what makes our community great. She also has a great understanding of what our city government structure is and she acts accordingly.
With two more weeks until papers need to be filed, we have absolutely no idea who’s actually running at this point. We’ll be lucky to have Marie Gilmore on the ballot.
Mark Irons
July 29th, 2008 at 7:34 am
John,
I thought in the proposed Lennar/Catellus marriage that Lennar was the big clout in residential and Catellus/Prologis, was the commercial clout.
In describing her choice Marie said in some cases “bigger really is better” which went beyond an explanation to show a sense of humor. I made fun of that on Lauren’s blog because I hated the idea, and I regret that a bit because I really like Marie and appreciate how thoughtful and articulate she is.
I agree we will be lucky to have Marie Gilmore on the ballot.
Lauren Do
July 29th, 2008 at 9:12 am
I think Mark is right, Lennar has always been a big name in residential development and Catellus is commercial.
But with that said, I think John hit on a really good point that in these discussions on the City Council dias, it is much preferrable — as someone who watches a lot of City Council meetings — for Councilpeople to be more judicious in what they say. I don’t need to hear someone bather on to prove to me that they understand what is going on. In fact, sometimes the more that some people bather, the more convinced I am that they have no clue of what is going on and to me, that is problematic.
I have always appreciated Marie Gilmore when she does speak that what she says will be well thought out. well reasoned, and comes from a place of knowledge. And that when she does make a decision that it has been carefully considered and weighed. That is what I want from a City Councilperson, no more and no less.
Mark Irons
July 29th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Lauren reminds me that I was once talking about local politics with an involved local who made the critical comment about Marie that she didn’t speak enough. I was flabbergasted. All I could say was that at least when she does you can expect it to be of some import..