Letter: Wisdom council reached consensus on several points

I want to thank the participants of the recent "mini-demo" of the Port Townsend wisdom council: Michael Beers, Michael Cobb, Kathy Hill, Jane MacAskill, David Michael, Elena Piscitello and Virginia Sophie. Randomly selected by phone number, they were asked to represent the citizens of Port Townsend in a two-hour, televised conversation about a controversial topic. Naturally, at first they were reluctant. But eventually they trusted, came and succeeded.

The City Council proposed a topic for them to consider: the controversy about the influx of chain stores to Port Townsend. The short meeting demonstrated how, when properly structured, random citizens will come to wise consensus conclusions about such topics. The wisdom council does not make decisions for the town but is designed to create a better quality of conversation than normal politics allows.

The participants had a lively, chaotic, creative time and reached consensus on a number of points:

• Port Townsend is special and we need to preserve that quality. Most importantly, we need to be clear in what we mean by "special" and articulate a vision for that.
  
  
• Derived from this vision, we need to set clear standards for businesses so that we help maintain, nurture and grow the vision. In particular, the historic district should be carefully protected.
  
  
• Further, it's important for people to realize that, just by spending money, they vote on which businesses they want. But at the same time, the group realized that those with low or fixed incomes may not feel free to exercise this choice.
  
  
• Finally, the wisdom council acknowledged that all these steps may not be enough to preserve the town's special quality. The group considered other ideas and, without reaching consensus on them, mentioned some for future discussion. These included: deciding on each incoming business separately, chartering all businesses, holding polls, enacting special tariffs or spending tax dollars to support what we want.

The entire conversation can be viewed on PTTV for the next few weeks - 1-3 p.m. Sundays and 4:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, and a copy of the tape is available at the library.

In addition, PTTV will host a guest critique of the wisdom council meeting of Jan. 21 from 6:30 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 13.

I hope this wisdom council is sparking more conversation and generating more ideas. The design is that future wisdom councils will assure that this dialogue remains creative and wise. The next official step is for the City Council to consider enacting a two-year trial of the wisdom council. This proposal will be considered in its Feb. 14 study session. All are welcome to attend. The proposal is explained at the website www.wisedemocracy.org.

Thanks again to the wisdom council members for their participation, to the PTTV crew for its help, and to the City Council for its openness to innovation.

JIM ROUGH

Port Townsend

(© Port Townsend Jefferson County Leader - February 9, 2000)