Government should be messy.

Last night's Board of Selectman's meeting went rather smoothly, I would say. The taxi regulations issue was on the agenda and the board got through the discussion of meters, the List and license ownership with a couple dozen concerned taxi drivers in the room without a single person raising their voice. They approved all of the warrants for the special town election with only one long-ish explanation form town counsel. They discussed capital expenditures for 2008 without a problem. It went rather smoothly.

Maybe too smoothly?

Personally, I like it when issues are discussed from both ends by the BOS. I like to see two opposing viewpoints hashed out. I like to see which ideas have merit. I like it when two passionate opinions are weighed against one another.

Happily, last night, there was a short discussion of proposed and (apparently un-workable) "random voluntary drug testing" for BOS members, which was defeated three to one. That was a little sticky. And there was a really interesting political pot-shot at me at the end of the meeting. (Apparently the fact that a privately funded web site that houses the government study committee information has a link to my site, yackon.com raised the hackles of a particular Selectman. Great. I haven't even gotten all of my signatures yet and the grenades are already in the air...)

The thing is, I love this stuff. Some people are conflict-averse, but me, I'm one of those kind of people who loves to jump right into the conflict and sort stuff out. Like breaking up a dogfight. Yeah, I might lose a pint or two in the process, but in the end, given an open and honest debate, the work of the community will be done. I'll wear the scars like a badge of honor.

So if I'm fortunate enough to serve, I'll make you this promise. I will never strive for quick, painless, neat-as-a-pin meetings. The Board of Selectman meetings are not held in a church. They're in a courthouse. Where conflict is often tackled and resolved. I'm happy to get my hands dirty in that way. At the same time I promise not to turn the meetings into something that would be better suited for a tough-man competition cage match. That's not my style either.

Nantucket first!