Thursday, May 21, 2009

A Train to Crazytown

Sometimes I think that the ACHD Commission is like Mussolini's Italy. The trains run on time, but the destination is unknown and who cares because the trains run on time.

We'll have these briefings on whatever and we have an hour to hear them - not really any more than that no matter what the issue is. We stick to that schedule like it's the most important thing in the world regardless if there are questions or policy issues that need to be addressed.

We look at things discretely without ever looking at the overarching policy implications. Every item has a box, every box has a slot and it doesn't matter if box A should logically be with box M, it needs to go by box B just because.

Oftentimes we go off on wild tangents that have nothing to do with the topic at hand, which just means that we have less time to discuss the important stuff because when that train is supposed to stop it stops, no matter how far from the destination we are. You can see the trapped panicked looks in the staff person's eyes as they know these cats can't be herded and their time is slipping away. I guess they figure that being with the loons on the commission once a week is doable but personally I can't believe people actually work at ACHD.

We might say one thing and then 15 minutes later contradict ourselves. We might spend 1/2 hour discussing a budget item amounting to a whopping $1000.00 while basically taking a pass on $6.1 million. We nibble at things around the edges but won't talk about anything big.

There does not seem to be any philosophy at work on the ACHD Commission where everything fits together. It's just this topic, then that topic, then another topic and we're done.

The train leaves and it arrives pretty much on time only what we don't know is that we purchased a ticket to crazytown and its location is 3775 Adams St, Garden City Idaho.

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