police

Photo borrowed from official City of Goshen website.

This week’s City Council meeting was note-worthy, in part, just because it took place. In previous years — with no pressing ordinances or resolutions up for vote — the habit had been for the mayor (with agreement from the council president) to announce a cancellation. New Council Rules and Procedures require a majority vote to cancel, which means we meet unless four council members arrange for a vote.

The meeting was well-attended and productive — with a little bit of something for everyone (from warm fuzzies to legalese).

We started with an uplifting commendation for some guys who rescued a complete stranger and her kids when a car flipped and landed in Rock Run Creek. You can see by the photo that everyone in the room (well, we’re politicians) wanted a piece of that brand of special. It feels good to cheer-on kindness, so we all gathered around and smiled with them. In this time of strained civilian/police relations, our police department and mayor deserve some major applause for recognizing and celebrating the role ordinary people play in making Goshen safe and livable.

Next, we moved on to accept a solar recognition award. So, LISTEN UP: Thanks to the work of a group of residents and city staff, we are now a SolSmart GOLD City. It’s a recognition for adopting programs and practices that make it “faster, easier, and cheaper” to go solar (I’m pretty sure they said Indianapolis is the only other Indiana city with the designation. Can I get a “woo-hoo!”?). If you want to know more about going solar, you can attend a workshop:

– August 3, 6:30 p.m. in the Municipal Annex Building, 204 E. Jefferson St
– August 12, 8 a.m. at Bethany Christian Schools, 2904 S. Main St.
– August 22, 7 p.m. in the Chamber of Commerce building, 232 S. Main St.

Following that sun-shiny good news, Councilwoman Gautsche advocated for a comprehensive smoking ban and led a discussion about what that would look like for Goshen. It was fairly lively, with lots of comment from both council and the public. If you like exploring the proper role of government, you would have enjoyed that conversation.

Then Councilman Scharf brought up ride-sharing in its various forms (Uber, Zip Car, carpooling, etc.) and talked about how it could help Goshen residents. For some mysterious reason, Councilman Alhersmeyer tried to remove the discussion item from the agenda, but his motion failed.

After a bit, we moved to a conversation (which I initiated) about the possible creation of Committees of the Whole on Legislation and Finance (because City Council is the Legislative and Fiscal Body for the city). If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it’s just a committee that all council members belong to. My perspective as a new member of Council is that we could benefit from a regularly scheduled space for conversation about how we should fulfill our collective role (which is different from the executive/mayoral role). Too often for my liking, we find ourselves simply responding to what comes to us that’s generated in the executive branch.

Goshen is fortunate to have an enthusiastic, engaged Mayor who is quickly making his mark. He brings humor, intelligence, and charm to his work. I would love to see City Council follow the lead and become equally engaged. We can only do that if we carve out some space for that to happen.

While I floated the idea of Committees of the Whole, I can see that with our new policy regarding meeting cancellations, we are somewhat more likely than we were before to find time in a regularly scheduled meeting to address shared priorities. That means it might not be essential to form committees — although it is unusual for a city council not to have any standing committees. Anyway, my point is that I’m not tied to a particular tactic to achieve the overall goal of improved legislative coordination. I just want to see us take some tangible actions to strengthen communication (between council members and with the mayor).

For the curious, it’s this statutory language from IC 36-4-4-2 that has me pushing for more City Council involvement: “The powers of a city are divided between the executive and legislative branches of its government. A power belonging to one (1) branch of a city’s government may not be exercised by the other branch.” Also in IC 36-4, it says “all powers and duties that are legislative in nature” reside with the legislative branch.

If you like considering the language and intent of law and/or thinking through how groups accomplish goals together, you would have enjoyed that conversation.

Finally, we talked about the Community Relations Commission’s request to add its guiding principles to our Rules and Procedures. We will likely do so. There was some uncertainty about whether they should be a stand-alone resolution; part of a preamble for our Council Rules and Procedures; or an amendment to the Community, Unity and Trust Resolution we passed last December. Stay tuned for that decision.

Oh — and our Youth Advisor (Jason Barahona) also gave us an update on his efforts to help make an area near Waterford Elementary School more pedestrian friendly. Impressive young man.

I’ll end where I began: I’m glad it’s harder to cancel meetings. REALLY glad. Because it’s better for democracy and for our community when we come out of our separate corners and get together. In person. That’s the best.

Motion to adjourn. 🙂

Several nights ago, in recognition of “National Peace Officers Week,” a group of officers and residents gathered downtown on E Jefferson Street to pay honor to the sacrifices police officers make every day to keep communities like Goshen safe.

We watched the Color Guard; we listened to speeches (including one from an officer who was shot and seriously injured in the line of duty); and organizers handed out a couple of scholarships to young people who are pursuing careers in criminal justice.

Each time I attend the annual event, I brace myself for the ceremonial gunfire. I promise myself I will stand stoically, not jump out of my skin. Then the thunderous shots ring out… and I STARTLE like an infant. The physicality of the sound perfectly punctuates the gravity of the occasion.

For those of us who aren’t enmeshed in the law enforcement world, the event is a good opportunity to stand with the men and women who have offered themselves up to deal with some of the problems that have slipped through our societal cracks. And I hope we can all acknowledge that by the time a blow-up happens on a street somewhere, much has already gone wrong (in a home, a school, a neighborhood, an economy…).

We’re not Chicago. But like any city, Goshen has experienced violent crime alongside the milder forms of criminal mischief. Thankfully, we’ve not seen our officers featured in any infamous viral videos. We have a Police Chief who has engaged in deliberate relationship-building with Latino residents; officers who volunteer as neighborhood association liaisons; police who play games with kids at the Boys and Girls Club. Police departments desperately need to be integrated into community life — and many of our officers are making that effort.

I recently rode with a Goshen officer. Like a typical civilian, in the days leading up to my scheduled ride-along, I conjured up a medley of police shows, everything from Cops, to Hill Street Blues to Reno 911. I imagined myself caught in a shootout or at the scene of a grisly car accident. Then I switched gears and worried that I’d be unbearably bored, that the officer wouldn’t talk to me, that I would be forced to sit silently in a squad car for hours (FYI, “silently” is not how I usually sit).

“I don’t know whether to be ready for boredom or waaay too much excitement,” I grumbled to my husband. And, of course, as I said the words aloud, it struck me: That’s the mental dance an officer does every single day. Every. Single. Day.

As it turned out, I was neither bored nor caught in a shootout. My host officer was welcoming and communicative. He talked me through everything that happened that evening (including the scary part), explaining his thought process and his use of discretion in a variety of situations. He answered every question I asked. He was genuinely good company and I left his car knowing that Goshen is fortunate to have him.

Now… it would be cowardly for me to ignore the dueling “Police-as-Hero” and “Police-as-Villain” narratives. What do we even DO with that? My heart holds immense gratitude for all the wonderful people who wear the uniform with integrity and selflessness. Yet we also know that some officers lose their way. Some officers have abused the public trust.

So, yes, we should Support the Police. No doubt. But surely support is more than unequivocal praise. It means seeing to it that our officers have the tools they need to do their jobs well — tools that go beyond basic hardware. It means recruiting carefully, training purposefully, and compensating fairly. It means reaching for and incorporating promising new approaches to age-old problems.

Peace Officer Week is almost over, but there’s no time limit for thanking an officer for serving.