First of two parts
[img]1307|left|Meghan Sahli-Wells||no_popup[/img]Took just one night for Meghan Sahli-Wells to feel at home with her new playmates on the City Council.
She did what only some new and veteran Council members practice:
Ms. Sahli-Wells not only studied the agenda, she plummeted the depths of last night’s agenda for her first meeting since being elected a month ago, running second among four winners.
Being genuinely prepared made the transition from ordinary citizen-activist to elected official elevated above the crowd in a capacious room as easy as falling asleep.
“It is such a cordial Council, and I felt that we started on the correct foot,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said this morning. “A week ago, I was nervous about this meeting, but if you are prepared, it makes things much easier.”
She would not say that when she stepped on the dais she was being seated among friends or pals. Rather, she regarded them as business associates. “I wouldn’t consider us friends, but definitely friendly,” she said. “We have good rapport. I don’t think we would want a Council so buddy-buddy they are going out drinking together.”
It is important to maintain individuality, she said, while working together. “That was amply demonstrated last night. At the same time, we are all different people and independent. It will be our strength not to agree on every single issue, to bring diverse perspectives to the Council, which we do.”
After coming within a thimble full of votes the first time she tried for office two years ago, it is plain Ms. Sahli-Wells shrewdly has invested her time in thoroughly pondering strategies for passing her populist sustainability-oriented agenda.
A steady, influential stream of public input is one of the principal pillars of Ms. Sahli-Wells’s philosophy as a private and public citizen. She asserted this strongly held initiative on several occasions, when she proposed resident-driven Budget and Sustainability committees .
(To be continued)
