A step backward for Dunsmuir

Arguing over politics is as American as apple pie. Some communities squabble and bicker and somehow manage to resolve their differences and get things done. Others get lost in a tangle of us-against-them wrangling that's more entertaining than enlightening, and makes progress toward common goals impossible.

Dunsmuir over the past several years seemed to be headed into the ranks of the can-do communities, with improvements to our downtown and a blossoming array of public festivals. It may yet continue on that path, but from now until the November elections we're more likely to be the clown act of Siskiyou County.

I'm referring, of course, to the upcoming recall vote on Mayor Peter Arth and Council member Mario Rubino.

In my view, you recall a public official not because you disagree with him or her on any particular issue but because you consider them unfit for office for ethical transgressions. Using that standard, I'm not aware of anything that even remotely justifies the recall of either Arth or Rubino.

Recall proponents have raised a number of thoughtful and substantive challenges to the water and sewage improvement plan approved recently by Arth and other members of the Dunsmuir City Council. They have made a real contribution to the debate on a complicated and critical issue.

But they're going in the wrong direction when they try to inflate policy disagreements into justifications for the recall of two public officials.

To their credit, Arth and Rubino had the courage to take on a task, the upgrading of our crumbling water and sewer systems, that previous Councils had shirked. The two Council members are clearly political novices, otherwise they'd have learned one of the first rules of politics: Avoid tough decisions whenever possible, especially if it involves raising taxes.

By any measure the recall effort says that Dunsmuir fails the basic test of a mature democracy: That is, the ability to take on difficult, often emotionally charged issues and resolve them through a process of debate and discussion in open public forums.

The recall effort suggests that we're like a lot of those other small towns where progress toward common goals is overshadowed by bickering and line-in-the-sand attitudes, the kind of Cold War mentality that says if you're not with me you're agin me. The line gets drawn in various ways, between good old boys and newcomers, liberals and conservatives, but it's the same rigid attitude nevertheless, and it poisons the public debate in any community.

At its core this recall effort strikes at everything I and a number of folks here have been working toward for many years, the idea of building common ground and working on common goals through efforts like our Historic District revitalization.

We were stonewalled by a previous City Council and city administration when we urged the city to do something about downtown property owners with crumbling buildings that clearly violated city codes. With vigorous support from Mayor Arth and the City Council over the past several years, we've seen a complete reversal of that attitude and a noticeable improvement in the appearance of our downtown. More recently, Mayor Arth has stepped in to provide critical support when our library was threatened with closure, and he has been a strong and active supporter of our growing number of public festivals, often reaching into his own pocket with generous donations to support them.

It's clear in hindsight that he made a major misstep when he proposed growing marijuana on a downtown property he owns. Nothing in the proposal was illegal or unethical, but it was insensitive to community attitudes in a town that has long been derided as a “drugtown.”

I gave up a long time ago on national politics as a forum for resolving important issues and coming up with workable solutions to our problems, and I can't say our state government inspires much confidence, either.

Local government has great potential for filling the vacuum left by bickering, posturing politicians. At the local level elected officials and their constituents have better opportunities to talk to each other directly, without lobbyists and other special interests getting in the way. Discussion on important issues is more likely to focus on the matter at hand, without the distractions of campaign fundraising or posturing for the next election.

But that depends on our ability to take a different approach from the one we see at so-called "higher" levels of government, to get past personal attacks, bickering and line drawing, and learn the more boring, adult skills involved in working together.

• Tim Holt is a Dunsmuir writer and volunteer in a number of community efforts.