TPS Board Retreat Report

On Saturday. The set up of the room and where the public (me) was allowed to sit was astounding and led me to believe that this board while almost a new board and capable of making wise decisions as it concerns the public is stuck in the old ways of the board under Sykes, Barnett, and Silverman.

The meeting room (see picture) was a regular room with sliding glass doors and the public was seated outside of the room in a hallway. Just poor community relations. There are other rooms in the building where the public and the board members could be all seated in the same room.

The facilitator, while very congenial, by her statements had had access to some of the board members before this meeting. I could be wrong but it just seemed to me that she had a lot of information beforehand from somebody who spoke against Darlene Fisher.

I believe the first indication was when Lisa Sobecki asked a question about trust and executive session. The facilitator stated that she would talk about that later in her presentation. Lisa Sobecki then brought up the issue of board members writing on blogs, talking on radio and writing columns in newspapers, a reference to Darlene Fisher and I guess Jack Ford since he writes a column for the Sojourner’s Truth.

Because this board is so new and the oldest members are Darlene Fisher and Steve Steel they have a chance to change the institutional thinking that persisted in previous boards. The boards with the bunker mentality. This is the way it was done 50 years ago and we ain’t gonna change the way we do things. And you the public better get that in your heads!

It will be up to Bob Vasquez and Jack Ford to lead the charge to change, while, Lisa Sobecki and Steve Steel play good guy, bad guy.
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