If Proposition 1 Was Just About Roads, This Would Be Simple.

I've probably spent way more time looking into Proposition 1 than I ever expected to.  Honestly, I didn't wake up one morning thinking, "You know what sounds like fun? Reading ordinance language and budget documents."  But here we are.  Funny how that happens.

The truth is, I wanted this to be easy.  If Proposition 1 was simply about fixing roads, repairing sidewalks and making our streets safer, I'd probably have filled out my ballot already and moved on.  I don't know anybody who's against fixing potholes.  I don't know anybody who thinks Tacoma shouldn't invest in its infrastructure.  That's not where I got hung up.  What got me scratching my head was everything that came after that.  The more I read, the more questions I had.  And after a while, I realized something.  This really isn't a conversation about roads anymore.  It's a conversation about trust.

Now, before anybody rolls their eyes and thinks, "Here we go... another political post," hear me out.  This isn't about Republicans.  It isn't about Democrats.  It is not about personalities.  It's about the relationship between a city government and the people it serves.

I've spent more than thirty-five years of my life in construction.  Today I'm a General Superintendent.  I don't simply oversee one project, I oversee all of them.  Every superintendent, every crew, every schedule, every meeting.  Every problem that eventually lands on my desk or blows up my phone.

Over the years I've learned something that's pretty simple.  Nobody spends serious money without asking serious questions.  And they shouldn't.  At work, if we sat down with a client and handed them a proposal that said, "Trust us... it'll all work out," that meeting wouldn't last very long.  The first question would be, "Walk me through it."  What's included?  What's excluded?  What's the budget?  What happens if something changes?  How are we measuring success?

Those aren't uncomfortable questions, they're responsible questions.

So why should government expect taxpayers to ask anything less?  That's where Proposition 1 lost me.  Not because I don't want better roads.  I do.  Not because I don't want safer streets.  Of course I do.

It lost me because I kept looking for clear answers and kept finding broad promises instead. I kept reading about what Proposition 1 could deliver, not what it would deliver.

There's another part of this that's been bothering me.  This isn't the first time Tacoma voters have been asked to weigh in on a transportation measure framed around making our streets safer.  Whatever your position was on previous proposals, those elections sent a message.  When voters hesitate or reject a proposal, that's feedback that needs to be taken seriously by the people we elect to look out for our best interests.  It's an opportunity for city government to stop and ask, "What aren't we explaining well?  What questions are people still asking?  How do we earn more confidence before we come back?"

That's what I would expect in construction, we should be able to expect it from elected officials.

If a client sent one of our proposals back because they wanted more detail, we wouldn't come back with fewer details and a higher price tag.  We’d sharpen the proposal, answer every question, remove as much uncertainty as possible.  We would earn their confidence before asking them to sign.  That's how trust works.  You take their concerns, answer their questions and make them feel confident that their concerns matter and are going to be addressed.

Instead, over the past several weeks, I've watched a different conversation unfold.  I've watched Tacoma residents ask questions.  LOTS of questions.  I've watched people ask for more specifics about how funds would be used, what safeguards exist, how success will be measured, and what accountability looks like over the life of the measure.  I've also watched many people express frustration that they aren't getting the level of detail they're looking for from their city government.

Whether you support Proposition 1 or oppose it, I think that's something worth paying attention to because trust isn't built by asking people to stop asking questions. It’s built by answering them.

One of the things that keeps coming up in conversations around Tacoma is confidence.  Not whether our roads need work, because most people agree they do.  The question is whether City Hall has earned enough confidence to ask taxpayers for additional authority over public dollars.

A recent city survey found that a large majority of voters expressed low trust in city government.  That's not something to dismiss, that is something to understand.  When public confidence is already strained, transparency becomes even more important, not less.  When public confidence reaches that point, city government has a responsibility to address the issue and correct it… not continue down the same path and hope confidence returns on its own.

Here's what I keep coming back to.  City government shouldn't have to convince people to stop asking questions.  Our civic leaders should welcome those questions because every honest answer strengthens public trust just like every unanswered question weakens trust.

That's why I think this conversation is bigger than Proposition 1.  It's about guardrails.  Good projects have them, good businesses have them and good governments should have them, too.

Clear plans, clear priorities and clear accountability.  Those things don't slow a project down, they build confidence in it.

Three days from now, Tacoma will make its decision.  Some people will vote yes and some will vote no.  That's how democracy works.  But regardless of what happens after the ballots are counted, I hope that none of us lose sight of the bigger lesson. The next time government asks taxpayers for more money, more authority, or more trust, the standard shouldn't be lower, it should be higher.

Trust isn't a blank check.  Trust is earned.  And once trust is lost, earning it back takes a lot more than another campaign. It's earned through transparency and through accountability.  It's earned by answering difficult questions instead of hoping they'll fade away.

I love Tacoma.  That's exactly why I ask these questions.  I'm not looking for reasons to say "no."  I'm looking for reasons to say "yes" with confidence.  Because at the end of the day, I don't think the citizens of Tacoma are asking for perfection, I think we're asking for something much more reasonable.

Show us the plan.  Show us the guardrails.  Show us how you'll measure success.  Then, and only then, ask us for our trust.

That's a conversation I think Tacoma is ready to have. In fact, it’s long overdue.

We all have to have the confidence that we are getting proactive responses to the things that matter most to us about the city we choose to call home.

That's the Tacoma I believe in.

A city where asking questions isn't seen as an obstacle to overcome, but an opportunity to earn the public's confidence.

Trust isn't something government asks us for, it's something government earns.