Hey Folks,
The following is an excellent article on the Jordon Cove Plan. If you are not familiar with this plan to use the county's URA to divert funds to a new exclusionary panel.....Rob T.
The following is an excellent article on the Jordon Cove Plan. If you are not familiar with this plan to use the county's URA to divert funds to a new exclusionary panel.....Rob T.
Culture of groupthink “results in an incorrect or deviant decision-making outcome”
Repost This Article
If you haven’t read it already, The World editorial entitled “Novel plan; fatal flaw – Public revenues are meant to be managed transparently, not by self-appointed groups” does a nice job of exposing the chronic hubris that so afflicts the culture of our local officials as well as appropriately chastening them for scheming to wrest control of public funds from the public. The plan’s architects, which include David Koch, Terence O’Connor, Roger Craddock and John Sweet, seek to place $20 million a year in property taxes from the as yet unapproved Jordan Cove LNG into two private corporations headed by a board of their choosing by essentially renaming the taxes “community service fees.”
As 501(c)(3)s, the nonprofit corporations lie outside the realm of public accountability. They won’t be subject to the state’s open meetings or records laws. They won’t be required to divulge their dealings or otherwise place themselves under public scrutiny of any kind… They aren’t required to take into consideration what the public may want.
Koch also rolled out the plan at a Coos County Urban Renewal Agency meeting wherein at the conclusion of his presentation he was overheard saying something to the effect of, “so unless there is any major opposition, this should work.” To which someone else remarked, “why would anyone object?”
For purposes of discussion we can accept that this small cadre or cabal has Coos County’s best interests at heart but the audacity of this scheme and the expectation that no one could possibly take issue with it demonstrates the downside of groupthink.
Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanize other groups. A group is especially vulnerable to groupthink when its members are similar in background, when the group is insulated from outside opinions, and when there are no clear rules for decision making.
Reading the line above reminds of how Bay Area Chamber of Commerce president and BS Oregon* promoter Brooke Walton cutely refers to LNG opponents as “antis” and the very fact the public was excluded from this process demonstrates how little value these individuals place on the views of outliers or anyone who has not assimilated to the narrow dogmatic economic development view of the cabal. (John Sweet should be ashamed of himself). If further illustrates the critical need to begin the public dialog recommended within the SDAT report.
The upside of this presentation is that it brings to the forefront, not for the first time, just how outlandish some ideas can be when generated through groupthink. Remember the county owned pipeline, the T-dock, the Crossline Ferry, etc, etc, etc… Heretofore, the masterminds of these failed schemes have never been held publicly accountable but perhaps this will encourage the public to pay much more attention in the future.
*Boost Southwest Oregon shortens conveniently to BS Oregon which some of us feels more accurate defines its primary goal to pass off industry bull—- is a prime example of how things might go wrong with a marketing department influenced by groupthink. Even better the informal definition of “boost” means to – “steal, esp. by shoplifting or pickpocketing” a term which may be a fair assessment of what the cabal is proposing to do with public money.
If you haven’t read it already, The World editorial entitled “Novel plan; fatal flaw – Public revenues are meant to be managed transparently, not by self-appointed groups” does a nice job of exposing the chronic hubris that so afflicts the culture of our local officials as well as appropriately chastening them for scheming to wrest control of public funds from the public. The plan’s architects, which include David Koch, Terence O’Connor, Roger Craddock and John Sweet, seek to place $20 million a year in property taxes from the as yet unapproved Jordan Cove LNG into two private corporations headed by a board of their choosing by essentially renaming the taxes “community service fees.”
As 501(c)(3)s, the nonprofit corporations lie outside the realm of public accountability. They won’t be subject to the state’s open meetings or records laws. They won’t be required to divulge their dealings or otherwise place themselves under public scrutiny of any kind… They aren’t required to take into consideration what the public may want.
Koch also rolled out the plan at a Coos County Urban Renewal Agency meeting wherein at the conclusion of his presentation he was overheard saying something to the effect of, “so unless there is any major opposition, this should work.” To which someone else remarked, “why would anyone object?”
For purposes of discussion we can accept that this small cadre or cabal has Coos County’s best interests at heart but the audacity of this scheme and the expectation that no one could possibly take issue with it demonstrates the downside of groupthink.
Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanize other groups. A group is especially vulnerable to groupthink when its members are similar in background, when the group is insulated from outside opinions, and when there are no clear rules for decision making.
Reading the line above reminds of how Bay Area Chamber of Commerce president and BS Oregon* promoter Brooke Walton cutely refers to LNG opponents as “antis” and the very fact the public was excluded from this process demonstrates how little value these individuals place on the views of outliers or anyone who has not assimilated to the narrow dogmatic economic development view of the cabal. (John Sweet should be ashamed of himself). If further illustrates the critical need to begin the public dialog recommended within the SDAT report.
The upside of this presentation is that it brings to the forefront, not for the first time, just how outlandish some ideas can be when generated through groupthink. Remember the county owned pipeline, the T-dock, the Crossline Ferry, etc, etc, etc… Heretofore, the masterminds of these failed schemes have never been held publicly accountable but perhaps this will encourage the public to pay much more attention in the future.
*Boost Southwest Oregon shortens conveniently to BS Oregon which some of us feels more accurate defines its primary goal to pass off industry bull—- is a prime example of how things might go wrong with a marketing department influenced by groupthink. Even better the informal definition of “boost” means to – “steal, esp. by shoplifting or pickpocketing” a term which may be a fair assessment of what the cabal is proposing to do with public money.
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