If you are not personally present when and where things are decided, how do you know what was decided and what was not and what were the critical considerations leading to a decision? A good question.
Aaron Burr spoke for many in his lamenting tirade to be in “The Room Where It Happens” in the musical Hamilton. In the song by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Burr sings that he is an outsider to the group of leaders who make significant decisions during the Revolution and in formation of the new federal government. He wants to be “in the room” where decisions are made. If you are not in the room, you don’t know “… how the parties get to ‘yes’, the pieces that are sacrificed in every game of chess, we just assume that it happens…”, he sings.
Well, Mr. Burr, welcome to modern day local governance, the pandemic, and the Time of Zoom. Since your day, the doors of backroom decision making have been thrown open. Wisconsin Open Meeting Law says that “all meetings shall be publicly held in places reasonably accessible to members of the public and be open to all citizens at all times”. Everyone can be in the room. And, Mr. Burr, the pandemic and virtual technologies opened the doors further – you can sit at home or anywhere you choose to observe an open meeting on-screen. In fact, local government officials also can be in the room virtually. The room no longer has doors and walls.
You are in the room. Anyone who wants can be in the room, but understand that you are not at the table. There is a difference. I will use School Board governance, the most grass root of local government, as my example.
School Boards sit at the table in the room where school policies are legislated, rules and regulations are debated and approved, and critical school decisions regarding local public education are made. The room is open for an in-person and remote audience. Access is being present. Further, being in the room allows persons in the audience to make comments or raise questions to the Board regarding agenda items. Access is the right to speak to and be heard by the Board. Access is the ability to hear the debate of the Board as it deliberates on all aspects of the issue. Debate of the agenda item, however, is conducted by the Board. Voting on the agenda is reserved exclusively to the Board. Being in the room is the ability to observe government in action, but it is not being able to make the decision. Governing decision making takes place “at the table” not just “in the room”. Perhaps, Mr. Burr wanted not only to be “in the room” but “at the table”.
“In the room” works well at the School Board and other local levels of government because the elected and the electors have proximity – they live and work in the same community. “In the room” and “in the community” are almost synonymous for local government. Distance makes “in the room” more contentious. Distance is measured not only in the miles between home and the state or national capital but also in the number of people between a concerned citizen-elector and the elected. The ability to speak to and be heard by an elected official becomes more difficult with the size of the government. It also makes the vehemence of agreement and disagreement more acute. Our recent national politics contain many Aaron Burr stories.
Let us remember our history. Mr. Burr later held elective offices and as Vice President of the United States sat at the big table.