Annapolis Capital Punishment

The following was sent in by Greg Stiverson, co-chair of the Mayor's Transition Teams:

A couple things struck me about Monday's work session on the Idea Teams' reports. First, throughout the very long evening, the mayor and council members listened attentively, with very little of the "going out to get a soda and returning half an hour later" that has so often been the case with council meetings. The audience, too, was attentive. Even at the very end, when your Transportation and Parking Team made its presentation, I counted 22 audience members left in the chamber. Unlike most transition team reports, this year's citizen input seems to have been taken seriously by both participants and by the mayor and council, who must make the hard political decisions on what to implement out of the many good ideas that were presented.

The second thing that struck me was how the mayor controlled the clock. The presentations started about ten minutes late (due to the obligatory invocation, pledge of allegiance, and a vote on one bill) and half-way through the mayor called a five minute recess to let people stretch their legs. The presentations ended at 10:15--exactly on time, allowing the scheduled 30-minutes for each of the eight presentations. Imagine what the evening would have been like just, let us say, three months ago. The evening would have stretched to the Witching Hour, at least, and prudent attendees would have come armed with sleeping bags or a thermos of strong coffee. This mayor seems respectful of people's time--both his fellow council members as well as the public. It's the way business should be done--professionally and respectfully. It was a breath of fresh air!

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