In my years on the Atherton City Council I have had many successes and helped to bring about substantial positive changes throughout the town. I have also made mistakes — but I have tried to learn from them and I have been my harshest critic.
It has been said that “politics makes strange bedfellows.” If it does, I have not really noticed. Rather, what concerns me most throughout this journey of love for my town (certainly it is not the high pay or the resulting sound sleep) is the change I have lately observed in the Atherton attitude. Citizens’ comments are not merely those expressing a different point of view to enlighten and enable each of us to make a more informed decision. Comments, written and spoken, have become threatening, mean-spirited and, in the case of those stated at the last regular council meeting, untrue and designed to malign a reputation — in this case, mine.
Last month a resident referred to a certain town employee’s (former finance director John Johns) cell phone bills as indicating potential nefarious activity on my part. The resident failed to note that the hundreds of minutes referred to averaged out to a little over an hour a month in conversation on the primary phone for someone with whom I had substantial committee obligations.
The resident failed to note that the other council member referred to as having approximately one minute of conversation was on none of those committees at the time. The resident, in referring to more than 100 minutes of conversation that had allegedly taken place after Aug. 29 and through October 2007 after the employee (Mr. Johns) had been placed on leave, failed to note that all bills were for the year 2006, not 2007!
Our council recently has chosen to spend thousands and thousands of our citizens’ tax dollars impugning the reputation of a man (John Johns) who, if he did wrong, was an at-will employee and could have been terminated for no cause at all, at any time. As someone who gave us the first and believed to be only unqualified audit in the town (and five successive additional unqualified audits) this person’s employment might have been considered worthy of a quiet, discreet end.
Certainly, I believe the reputation of the town was owed that. Has the town benefited as a consequence of this liberal application of legal and investigative funds? Does anyone wonder about the logic, the motivation, which has relentlessly and unthinkingly continued to drive this issue? Does anyone wonder why no action was taken regarding the exact same initiating complaint last May after consideration by the former city manager and the same law firm which ultimately chose to pursue this matter in August?
In this holiday season, as I see people all around me stressed and fatigued, I give thanks for all I have. The other day my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas. “Absolutely nothing tangible,” I said. What I really, really want is a return to civility.
I want a town that can be proud of itself and its reputation, a town that can think of itself as a whole — not one part on the east side allegedly protecting artifacts for themselves alone and one part on the west side spending all of the Atherton channel drainage funds for its own undeniably most pressing needs. I want us to stop thinking about who might be getting more and recognize the benefit to the whole.
We are one town. What is good for our neighbor in the west is good for our neighbor in the east, not simply because there might be some personal benefit, but because what makes part of us stronger can make us all stronger. Civility can make us feel good about ourselves. Let us not simply talk to, talk about or talk down. Let us instead talk with. Let us talk with all who wish to participate. It’s not just what this season is about — it is what we must attempt to foster throughout the year — good will towards men (and women and children and pets and trees).
Kathy McKeithen is a member of the Atherton City Council.
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