Traditional Town Hall
Dear Editor: I advocate TRADITIONAL town halls for helping resolve deep local issues, or at least to help develop mutual understandings by hearing our fellow Sitkans.
On the cruise issue, some are saying this format is “no good” because there would be time to hear only 30 or so people speak.
Not true! Records – of what likely is Sitka’s largest town hall hearing ever – show what is possible. On July 5, 1977, at Centennial Hall, I observed the event as a Sitka newcomer.
It was a congressional field hearing on the controversial bill H.R. 39, which was passed three years later as ANILCA and which established Southeast’s first designated wilderness areas (including the West Chichagof and South Baranof) and confirmed subsistence rights.
Held the day after Sitka’s 4th of July parade and the July 2 and 3 all-Alaska logging competition (in Baranof School’s playground), the hall was packed not just with locals but with loggers and other timber industry people from all over Southeast.
182 people testified in that single day, July 5. All who had pre-registered got two minutes, and some others likely testified at the end. In that pre-Internet age, registering to testify required a letter or telegram to the Subcommittee, in Washington, received by June 24.
The whole event was later transcribed and officially published – you can download it here: https://bit.ly/5July77
To accommodate so many speakers, at 3 p.m. – after speeches by the six congressmen and testimony by 36 dignitaries (mayors, tribal leaders, timber industry representatives, etc.) – the hearing was split in two. A table of three congressmen took testimony in the main hall, and three others did so in the Maksoutoff Room (Assembly chamber). Both rooms were open to all to observe.
Witnesses were called in groups of five, and had been encouraged earlier to form their own groups so that individual could pool their time if desired; often one spoke for all. Congressmen’s questions could be answered by any of the five, and each congressman had a time limit for his quizzing. There was good dialog.
See Rep. Seiberling’s transcribed instructions to witnesses, pages 1-3 of the record.
The Sentinel’s July 6 article gave good coverage. Though it states both 100 and 150 as the number of testifiers – surely hard to tally on the fly, with two rooms – the above 182 is my count from the transcript’s actual witness list (pages III through VII).
So, on the cruise issue, there is a way for all of us to hear what anyone has to say, and for unfolding discussion through successive testimonies. Here in the 21st century, the event can be streamed from one or more rooms, and be archived on YouTube. We have digital means for transcription and (if needed) witness preregistration. Whether observed live or accessed later, a TRADITIONAL town hall meeting like this would promote mutual understandings and help break down “silos.” I think it is what Sitka needs for the present highly contentious issue.
Larry Edwards, Sitka
