Editorial: City Council in for rude awakening with ‘decorum policy’?

City should avoid instituting a polite police.|

“If the prudence of decorum dictates silence, then the prudence of a higher order may justify speaking our thoughts” – Edmund Burke

The Sonoma City Council is about to mind its manners.

That’s the likely end result of the council’s 5-0 vote on May 16 to develop and eventually adopt a “decorum policy” to guide council and commission conduct during town meetings.

The council was unanimous in its decision – perhaps not so much because all councilmembers felt such a policy was necessary, but because it would have betrayed a lack of decorum not to be.

City decorum policies are becoming more and more common these days, as municipalities react to the perception – largely false – that political cheap shots have reached a tipping point. Think Donald Trump’s childish nicknaming, incessant boasting, blatant sexism and veiled racism is the nadir of American political discourse? Well, if dirty politics can be measured by the size of one’s manhood, Donald Trump’s hands are looking pretty puny – at least compared to our Founding Fathers.

Take the Presidential campaign of 1800 – which pitted President John Adams against Vice President Thomas Jefferson. Adams’s people claimed a Jefferson presidency would result in an America where “murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will be openly taught and practiced.” Adams’s lieutenants responded that Jefferson was a “repulsive pedant” who “behaved neither like a man nor like a woman but instead possessed a hideous hermaphroditical character.”

American history is littered with equally baneful charges – pimping and bigamy were the Benghazi of their day during the 1928 race between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Ted Cruz not knowing what a basketball hoop is called seems pretty tame in comparison. (Still, a “ring” Senator? Really?)

It’s difficult to gauge why the Sonoma City Council is suddenly interested in a decorum policy, though the timing is interesting. Mayor Laurie Gallian requested its agendizing earlier in the spring not long after a meeting about… wait for it… leaf blowers, in which Councilmember Madolyn Agrimonti referred to landscapers, somewhat unfortunately, as “they” and Councilmember Gary Edwards called her on it, asking if she meant Latinos. Perhaps not a shining moment for the council – but hardly a blip that warrants a decorum policy. As someone who has covered a dozen or so North Bay city councils over the years, Sonoma’s isn’t one that stands out as possessing a troubling lack of decorum. (My favorite was the 2011 Sausalito City Council which found one member filing a police report for battery after her council adversary brushed her hand away from his console space during a divisive council debate.)

Despite any flaws Sonoma’s council may have, an overt lack of decorum isn’t one of them.

That being said, a decorum policy is neither here nor there for the Sonoma council. Largely symbolic, such policies serve as feel-good measures to market the concept of respectfulness in city government. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, per se; the value of the policy will ultimately come down to how it’s framed. As to that, the council would be advised not to confuse decorum – speaking in a mannered tone, not interrupting, not insulting – with dissent.

Commission and council members need to feel secure in their ability to challenge each other – even if such challenges are uncomfortable – if a provocation is fair, on topic and warrants debate. That was the case last year when the council got into a tussle over planning commission appointments.

Because the matter specifically challenged appointment decisions by then-Mayor David Cook, the discussions had their awkward moments. But councilmembers aired their grievances and the result was a stronger policy for appointing commission members. One wonders if an overly strict decorum policy might have found council members holding their tongues in such a situation – and prevented them from doing their jobs.

As incorrigibly indecorous writer Ambrose Bierce once quipped, “politeness” can be the “most acceptable form of hypocrisy.”

Email Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.

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