Let Citizen Committees Do Their Job

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post The citizen committee culture in Kansas City is something of which I've long been critical. On the surface it sounds like a solid idea. Appoint qualified, civic-minded individuals to study a problem and recommend a solution. Use the talent and experience being offered free of charge of those who wish simply to contribute to the common good. Unfortunately, that is not how citizen committees actually work, or not work if you will. I have had the honor of serving on three mayoral appointed committees. With the exception of the Competitive Review Committee (my first) it has been my experience that the dirty little secret about citizen committees is they really don't reach any of their own conclusions. Mostly committees are a group of individuals, some wishing to contribute, some wishing to pad a civic resume and even one or two just looking for a captive audience to which they can complain about some cause or perceived injustice. Committees watch presentations from paid consultants who are given the real task of developing a solution. The presentations and information provided by the consultants is usually weighted to lead the committee to the conclusions the consultant team inevitably wants implemented. Not that there's anything nefarious going on with the consultants. We all have bias when it comes to our work, so why wouldn't a paid professional present his or her conclusions in a positive light and less desirable solutions in a more negative fashion? In a time when we're all being asked to tighten our financial belts it occurs to me there is a layer of inefficiency in our citizens' advisory committee system. We have two choices from the way I see it. Remove the citizens advisory committees altogether and have the consultants present directly to the City Council, or remove the consultants and appoint citizen advisory committees with relevant qualifications to do the actual work. It would seem the latter would be the most cost effective choice for the taxpayers. Kansas City is blessed with an abundance of professionals from every walk of life who are more than willing, and more than qualified to serve on committees and offer sensible recommendations for a variety of civic issues. I have served with architects, engineers, financiers, attorneys and just about any other type of profession who were more than qualified to offer professional opinions of a variety of subjects. The best part? They're willing to do this for free. The only consultants needed in this process would be a professional selection committee since the Mayor and Council do not seem to have the ability to keep from also appointing their friends, enemies, daughter's dance teacher, wife's friends, large contributors or complete lunatics. Put together a competent group of citizens with backgrounds germane to the issue and watch what civic-minded people can do. To those who would argue that you get what you pay for? How many light rail plans have we paid for in the last 30 years? With all that money wasted on consultants we could have already laid a few miles of track, or a few hundred yards of modern sewer. Maybe even paved a street or two.