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By Pauline Masson –
As she welcomes the newest city legislative board following the recent election, Mayor Heather Filley says concerned citizens may be the greatest asset in determining the city’s future.
She says although the city image has taken some hits recently, the city belongs to all of us and she wants citizens to return to city hall meetings, and above all, voice not only their concerns but their solutions to city deficits.
In an interview with Hometown Matters on April 17, the mayor voiced her confidence in what is right with the city — the city staff and police department keep the city steady — and her belief that the citizens can do more to help elected officials get it right.
“As elected officials we don’t have all the answers and may not see every possible response to city needs or challenges,” she said. “Citizens need to share their wishes for what makes Pacific a good place to live, work and play.”
The city is in the early stage of hiring a new city administrator, the second in less than a year. At the same time, the administration faces the specter of an aging swimming pool, the possibility of routing big rigs onto designated truck routes, and hopes for building a skate park in City Park.
While tackling those issues, the mayor says a dialogue between citizens and elected officials can go a long way toward making us look like a more welcoming city.
“We have had significant turnover in city staff over the last year, which I think has caused, I won’t necessarily say a blemish on the image, but it has brought up the questions as to why – why this turnover?” she said. “ Honestly, I don’t have a good specific answer as to why. I know some sought professions in completely unrelated careers. Others I believe just didn’t feel like they meshed well any longer with the board.”
“I think that very much was the case with this most recent change in city staff, and it is concerning to me, because we are looking to hire, specifically for the city administrator position.”
“We started this before we knew our current one was going to be leaving, and I have a concern as to what do these candidates see. Are they going to take a step back and say, ‘wow that’s two new city administrators in a year? What is going on? Is there something I should be concerned about? Am I still interested in the position?’”
“And I think other cities look at this as well,” she added. “My focus now is to let people know that we are still moving forward, because we are we.”
Of all issues that face legislators, one of her favorites is the campaign to build a skate park, which would benefit the city’s younger citizens – although older citizens would be able to use it.
“I very much want to see us build that skate park. It would not only add a great element to a park already filled with activity amenities – the children’s playground, ball fields, pavilions, the swimming pool, tennis courts and a walking trail – it would attract people to our town,” she said. “And we have a great story to tell about the skate park, to honor a talented and active young citizen who gave his life for our country.”
The mayor said she relies on the staff in the day-to-day operation of the city. But she is turning to the citizens to help shore up the image of Pacific as a community and hometown – and remind interested observers that our city is taking care of business
‘I just hope that they (citizens) trust the staff like I do. I hope that they really see the value of keeping the image of Pacific positive and moving this town forward in everything they do and touch,” she said. “That is the only way that we are going to even stay alive.”
The mayor stressed that she does not harbor wishes of Pacific becoming the next Washington, Eureka, or Sullivan. She wants Pacific to grow at the pace that Pacific can support and benefit from.
“That’s the key thing,” she said. ”And that’s what is going to help us retain a good image, letting businesses and residents who are coming to make our town their home know that we do want to grow. If we don’t grow, we’re going to become a desolate Railroad town. But we want to grow at a pace that makes sense.”
She added that it’s the ordinary things about a city that makes up its image.
“I don’t want people who are driving down 44 to go, ‘Oh, it’s the town after Six Flags.’ I want them to know it’s Pacific. ‘That’s where, Bigfoot is, right off the highway. Or, that’s where Red Cedar is. They (Pacific residents) have a great, huge, Liberty Field park, and the disc dogs go there quite often. They have a great community park that you can walk around in,’” she said. “That’s the kind of thing I want our neighbors to know about without having to be told.”
She said the upcoming Route 66 Centennial offers an opportunity to promote Pacific as a great placet to visit. The City has a committee working on the Route 66 Centennial.
“We’re going to have to draw from outside of St. Louis, outside of Missouri. Rt 66 goes from one end to the other. We’ve got to include it all. We’ve got to get it all out there,” she said. “I think can work with the other cities that are on Rt. 66 and ask, what are you doing? How can we tie into that?”
“It would be everybody helping everybody. And that will bring people to Pacific. So when they see our town, it helps people keep coming back. And that’s what we need to do, really, is to work on is getting people here, really making it a place where you can live work and play.”
However, her biggest objective – above the future of the swimming pool, better truck routes, increased tourism, and even a skate park – over the next year her focus is to re-engage the citizens with city hall. Now that the COVID quarantine is past us, citizens can gather at city hall and interact with legislators.
“I would love to see more citizens at the board meetings,” she said. ”Residents have the option to talk about whatever it is they want to talk about, even if it is not on the agenda.They can fill out the speaker card and talk about anything.”
Other forms of communication have a role to play in city life, she said.
“Social media can be your best friend and your worst enemy, but nothing pulls a community together like the face to face experience in the board meeting,” she said. “I think we need those citizens to truly feel their voices are being heard in the appropriate way. And the best way to do that is to come in front of the board.”
“I get it that some people are not public speakers and they’re nervous about it – and often they don’t show up until they’re mad – by then, it’s almost too late for anything to be done.”
“The thing I want to stress to citizens is if they have an issue, that concerns them, they should bring it forward in the beginning, when they are first upset or concerned. Make all of us sitting up there aware of it so we can start working on a resolution. And, if you have a potential resolution to a problem bring it forward. It might be one that we didn’t think of. But we may not know about it until it’s too late. If you have a resolution, let us hear it.
“That way, we are listening to what concerns citizens. We are hearing what could be a solution rather than trying to come up with a solution one hundred percent on our own. This is what we need. And that’s the way a business runs,” she said.
She stressed that If citizens don’t feel like they’re being heard and they’re being listened to then they are not going to come forward. Her personal mission as mayor is to assure citizens that she and other elected officials are listening.
The City may not have the ability or the wherewithal to solve every problem. The swimming pool offers a unique set of challenges.
“The way I see the swimming pool is that it is not a necessity, it is a luxury,” she said. “Do I want to see us maintain the pool? Yes. But how to do that offers no easy answer. Would we want to set aside $500,000, or $300,000 each year for a swimming pool and not have the funds to fix our streets?”
“We have to do our best planning on the future of the pool,” she said. “And, in the end, the only way to do it may be to turn to the citizens to approve a bond issue and our only option is to put on the ballot.”
“What ever issues we face, we need to hear about if from citizens. I invite all residents to come the city hall meeting to talk about what matters to them,” she said. ”We’ll be a better city for it.”
Oh dear, I would hate it if Pacific spends a lot of money on a skate park when so many in the community have wanted a better swimming pool for years. For years there has been talk of wanting a swimming pool with areas for young children, slides, things that would draw people from surrounding areas. Proof of that is Union’s pool. A lot of people from Pacific take their kids/grandkids to that pool where the kids have a lot of fun. It would be a huge source of revenue for Pacific, I would think. When that is taken care of, a skate park would be great.
On senior staff departing; no matter what their ‘official ‘ reason two left because their underhanded dealings were about to catch up to them.
As for bringing concerns to ‘ public participation’ part of Board meetings they do a fair job of listing about a problem but a citizen or group should be able to approach staff and get some type of help with out the hassle of a Board meeting and not knowing how they will be accepted.
This works for problems but for new or ‘different ‘ ideas one seems to frequently run into the infamous “not invented here syndrome’. The Board sits there like stones on a wall with the look of hurry up we have things to do on their faces.
There have been lots of beautification ideas, trail ideas and such that have seen little progress or evidence that anyone in the City administration even cares.
A lot of these ideas cost a lot less than the one recently talked about and can easily be funded by monies locked up sitting in inactive CID’s
Get on with it , the clock is running, only two years to the Big Party, not much to show off yet.