Michigan House Representative Donna Lasinski set another high bar in constituent accountability with Saline Q&A today

State Representative Donna Lasinski, Michigan House District 52 — State Representative Donna Lasinski from Michigan House District 52, in Saline City Hall, dialoguing with constituents at January 11 “coffee hour." © 2019 d2 Saline, All Rights Reserved. USA

The term “coffee hour” hardly begins to describe what took place this morning. That’s the stuff of anywhere, not Saline. Other government officials when compared to our own Donna Lasinski. [1,2]

Event attendance numbers weren’t arresting, with less than a dozen at the outset, eventually doubling. Mostly older residents, with added headcount from the ranks of City Hall. At the same time, the character represented was of the sort on which we’ve reported previously. Informed and assertive. They’d come prepared to engage, posing specific questions from an impressive variety of angles. [3]

As always, Michigan House District 52 Representative Lasinski meshed with this as if by design. The last quarter century of casting politics as sport has risked masking places where government as designed is working where people who approach it as a profession serve. That was the tenor of this room — rather like so many of fine extended dialogues in The West Wing (before Sam left the series). [4,5]

Or, if you prefer, when Brian Lamb was in ascendency on air and at the helm of C-SPAN. [6,7]

Representative Lasinski opened with comments about current events that are clearly weighing heavily on her mind. Noting that “in the Session we just ended, 57% of the legislation passed came through in the last three weeks,” she stated her belief that lame duck initiatives are neither “productive” nor “ethical.” Going on to explain that its original intent had been to allow for elected officials’ travel in a bygone era and to deal with emergencies, it has “morphed into a political hot box.” [8-11]

She went on to anticipate that the “biggest change we’re going to see is how legislators work with a governor of a different party” here in Michigan. On a larger landscape, “we are in an uncertain revenue picture with the [partial federal] government shutdown.” [12-14]

After those customary opening remarks, along with those of Saline Mayor Brian Marl and Representative Lasinski, the floor was opened to questions and that drove the balance of this hour. [15]

Early inquiry focused on concern about pollutants in Michigan water. Representative Lasinski began her response by suggesting that the federal regulatory context be viewed in terms of having set minimum standards. These address issues of the states in aggregate. From there, Michigan legislators must consider unique characteristics of our state. “We carry more waste. We live in our houses longer. We enjoy outdoor life more,” she observed. “So we are in contact with our water more; there is more exposure. [16,17]

With all these factors, we need higher standards. Success in dealing with 1,4 dioxane is an example of addressing need. [18]

From there discussions meandered through passage of Proposal 2 last November, City of Saline interest in expanding its own historic district and the role of tax credits as impetus for buy-in, and electric vehicle incentives. Each was dispatched with similar depth and top-of-mind detail. [19-26]

Saline Police Chief Jerrod Hart then asked questions, following up more particularly in dialogue with Donna Lasinski on both implementation of Proposal 1 and asset forfeiture as a tool for law enforcement. [27-33]

Noting that “it took ten years to come up with legislation for medical marijuana,” she anticipated that “we’ll see recreational come around quicker.” The Representative went further to detail a five-tier structure of “checks and balances” that delineate the key aspects of growing, testing, processing, transporting and selling, noting, “you can’t do any two that are next to each other on this list.”

Although billed as a public forum featuring both State Representative Lasinski and our mayor, coming as it did so soon after his State of the City Message delivered a mere four days prior, Brian Marl deliberately took a seat shortly after introductions. This deference is worth highlighting for the constituent-focused act that it was. The word gracious comes to mind.

Revisiting attendance numbers, it’s easy to empathize with those who chose to pass on this with rationalizations of having heard it all before, pigeonholing it as politics, or having thought reading summary after just as good. Besides, I wouldn’t know what to ask! Consistently, we haven’t seen the latter as a problem for Saline exchanges of this type: All questions are taken, and those just along for the ride can rest assured that many others who’ll attend will not.

More particular to this appearance, there is a predictable depth and interplay among content points that simply can’t replace being there — present coverage by Saline Journal notwithstanding.

Besides— in addition to both delivering a full hour (and more, for those who were interested), as promised, and coffee, a delicious selection of fresh donuts was offered as well.

References