This article was sparked by a post on Nextdoor regarding a new multifamily housing project in San Carlos. But its focus is broader: what are the dos and don’ts of being an effective citizen lobbyist to the City Council. It’s based on my nearly twenty years as a local elected official, first on the school board and then almost ten years on the Council. While I have no professional experience as a lobbyist, being on the receiving end of citizen input let me see what worked well, and what worked not so well. Enjoy!
The following are not in any particular order.
San Carlos is not sovereign
It’s easy to assume — since we have a local elected government in charge of local affairs — that our local government is in total control of what goes on within the city’s boundaries. For good or bad, that’s not true.
Instead, San Carlos’ government operates within a framework of inherent, delegated, and constrained authority. Because local government is the lowest level of government, it has relatively few inherent powers. Almost all of its powers are delegated to it by the State of California. The constraints on its powers derive from provisions in the State and Federal Constitutions.
If you lobby the Council to do something beyond the scope of its powers you will end up being frustrated. Not because the Council might not agree with you, but because they can’t act on your request.
Land Use Decisions are a Delegated Authority
The biggest single area of Council actions involves what is called land use regulations. These are simply “what can be built where”. The fact that you can’t build multifamily housing or retail establishments in much of San Carlos is the result of land use regulations.
But because the Council’s land use authority is delegated from the State, the State can override them or impose additional constraints the Council must follow. Constraints need not be negative. They can constrain the Council’s authority to adopt certain regulations or deny certain projects (a “negative constraint”).
While there is a general principle that State-mandated changes should not be retroactive, that’s only a principle, not a constraint on what the State may choose to do. If Sacramento determines there is a significant enough public need at stake they can override the land use rules created by the Council.
Question Authority…but Study it First
One of my favorite bumper stickers was one that simply spelled out “Question Authority”. Why? Because it’s part of the process which keeps authority in check, and, over time, makes authority “better”.
But the most effective questioning comes after you have studied an issue. Lobbying is simply selling a political concept. All good salespeople know that, to be effective, you have to know where your potential customer is coming from, what their needs, desires and constraints are. If you don’t, much or all of your sales pitch will be ineffective.
Most local political lobbying — because it’s done by amateurs (that’s not an insult, just a statement of fact) — is not based on a good understanding of the lay of the land. In fact, by the time most people work up the energy to lobby — we all have more important things to do, after all! — they’ve locked themselves into a mindset where they assume the Council is acting like idiots on the issue.
It’s certainly possible the Council is being an idiot on any given issue; they’re human, after all. But in the vast majority of cases, the perception of idiocy is a result of a citizen lobbyist not understanding the constraints under which the Council operates. Studying the legal framework surrounding an issue is the best way to avoid that…and the best way to figure out what you can do, so you can focus your lobbying efforts effectively.
Local Issues aren’t Necessarily Local
When you study the legal framework surrounding an issue, you may quickly determine the Council simply cannot do what you want them to consider doing. At that point, most people give up in frustration, and turn away, generally muttering criticisms like “all electeds are crooks” or “they’re all in someone’s pocket”.
That can be true, of course. History is full of examples of political corruption. But, generally speaking, the level of such corruption is relatively low when considered in the light of how many public decisions get made.
More importantly, finding that the Council cannot do what you want is generally a sign that you need to re-focus your lobbying on a different level of government. Specifically, the level which imposed the constraints preventing the Council from considering what you want.
Take the current bête noir of many San Carlans, multifamily housing. The State has required cities to have land use policies sufficient to enable construction of their share of new housing demand caused by commercial development they approve (most cities love commercial development because it generates taxes without increasing the number of residents, who want public amenities which cost money). But those regulations weren’t enforced.
Now they are. Sometimes quite severely (e.g., if you don’t get your housing plan approved in time, a city can lose the ability to not approve a project…which leads to some very large projects residents vehemently reject). The State has also overridden local regulations regarding multifamily land use policies near mass transit stations.
We can debate the merits of these State-level changes…but the important point to keep in mind is that they are State-level changes. Lobbying the Council to change them is, if not pointless — the Council is subservient to the State — ineffective. Instead, you’d be better off lobbying State lawmakers. Since it’s fairly likely our area’s State lawmakers aren’t terribly supportive, if supportive at all, of the recent changes, that also means lobbying would be more effective if applied to State lawmakers representing other parts of the State.
Put another way, if you don’t like a State law, study the political forces which gave rise to it…and then see if you can offer those other lawmakers a different approach which gets you at least some of what you want for your own community.
Admittedly, that’s a big ask for a local lobbyist…which is why it rarely happens.
Celebrate Partial Victories
Because they’re probably the best you’ll ever see.
One of the hardest parts of lobbying is accepting you’ll rarely get most, let alone all, of what you want. That’s not necessarily because the system is stacked against you (although it can be, if you’re just getting started lobbying and are going up against interest groups who have been lobbying their own perspectives for years). Instead, it’s likely simply the result of you not understanding the full range of opinion on your issue.
I like to tell the story about how, back in 2011 when I was going door to door in San Carlos to get elected to the Council, I stopped dead in my tracks up on Melendy Drive…because I could see most of San Carlos laid out below me, and the thought “How can a reasonable person expect to represent the views of all those people?” bomb shelled into my brain.
The answer is, I can’t. No one can. Not only because there are so many people, and because almost all even “simple” public issues are quite complex. But because most people don’t know what their views are on most public issues. Why should they? They’re just living, and hopefully enjoying, their lives. They start formulating views only in response to events, generally events they don’t care for.
If your lobbying is effective, it will inevitably encourage opposition, simply because no one person’s views — or even the views of a good number of residents — represents the totality of views on any given issue. Even the issue during my tenure which had the largest public turnout the Council had seen in many years, if ever — the opening of a new gun store — had a number of people supporting the opening while the vast majority opposed it.
So, to be an effective lobbyist, you need to learn to celebrate partial victories. Otherwise, you’re liable to give up on lobbying in frustration…which means you won’t accomplish much, if anything. “Declare victory, and live to fight another day” is a useful mantra to keep in mind. Simple to write…but much harder to embody.