Officials Who Don’t Want to Hear from the Citizens Control City Hall / We Can Change That 

Vote for Anna Meadows for Ward 2 Alderman

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By Pauline Masson – 

Anna Meadows wants to be the next alderman to represent Ward 2.

If elected, Meadows said her number one goal will be to persuade her fellow aldermen to dictate that citizens will be able to address elected and appointed officials at all city meetings. And she, personally, wants to hear from citizens.

“I will put my phone number out there and I will invite citizens from all wards to call me,” she said.  She also said she welcomes conversations with people who disagree with her as well as those who agree with her.

“Maybe the person who disagrees with you has the information that you most need hear,” she said.

Meadows is young, educated, and loves to talk.

“If you don’t believe in listening to the citizens, your missing the main point of democracy – of government of the people,” she says.

“I am a cardiac ICU nurse, a job that takes a very serious crew of people working together to provide the best service to our patients,” she said. “I know how to listen when I need to listen, and how to act when I need to act. I may laugh easily, especially at myself, but I’m always serious about serious issues.”

The candidate grew up in Swansea, Illinois, a community of 11,000, a tad larger than Pacific, that identifies itself as a Village. Meadows said she is at home in a small city atmosphere of Pacific. She is familiar with a city where citizens know their neighbors and can often count elected officials among their acquaintances or friends.

Meadows’s run for political office comes in the wake of a disagreement between citizens and city officials about citizens right to speak at city meetings.

She is new to Pacific. She bought the property for her house four years ago and moved in 18 months ago. For for the past several weeks she has been going door to door as a Ward 2 canddate to talk to residents, and more importantly, she stressed, to listen.

Meadows says if she has learned nothing else about our town, she has learned that citizens want to be heard at city hall. And most often, officials are not willing to listen. Like first term aldermen James Cleeve and Scott Lesh, Medows watched citizens appear before the board of aldermen with a plea or a petition only to see the aldermen cross their arms and close their ears to what was being said.

Alderman Jerry Eversmeyer, the Ward 2 incumbent, officially banned citizens from addressing his Operations Committee. He said the meetings were intended for aldermen to study issues and listening to citizens would make the meetings too long.

Anyone can see, Meadows said, that while aldermen are still trying to determine the wording and the effect of new laws is the time they should be listeneing to the citizens.

Speaking as a veteran journalist, who has observed of hundreds of candidates in my 50 years as a reporter of municipal government, I’ve seen cities entrenched in unfriendly climates of  “city fathers know best.” And I’ve seen cities where officials saw their citizens as their greatest boosters. 

If we really want to feel good about city government we need to elect people who bring a citizen friendly atmosphere to city hall. If we want to trust our officials, we need to elect people who will listen to us.

This not a personal condemnation of elected officials who disappoint us.

Officials who ignore citizens, or ban citizens from speaking in city meetings, are more often that not, well-meaning people who, once elected or appointed to city government seem to set themselves above the citizens and have no obligation to listen to them. In a small city they are often our friends – at least long time acquaintances – whom we have seen do good things.

They may help raise funds for our projects, raise admirable children, and show up to cheer at city events, but more and more it appears that they just dont’t want to hear from us when they are making new laws or approving new developments that affect us.

This is a tough love plea. We, the voters, need to be tough enough here to elect people who truly represent all the citizens – those who vote for them and those who don’t vote.

Our city has been run by people who don’t want to hear from citizens. Now we have a chance to change that.

This is a first for me. I have been a journalist in Pacific for 30 year, reporting on the actions of six mayors and an untold number of aldermen. 

When I talked with Anna Meadows, I asked her the same tough questions that I have asked numerous candidates.

She brings to the table, a fresh face, a confident voice and a promise that citizens’ comments will be an important part of her decision making process. She believes people are the key to good government.

I endorse Anna Meadows for Ward 2 alderman to create a board of aldermen that puts citizens first. Please vote for her.