Phillips Public Comments at BHEC Council 10-15-24
Phillip Crum, AMHP Co-Founder, TX Citizen.
After the last two board meetings I think I've figured out why this room is almost empty every time you meet, and I think I know why you go through volunteer public members like salt through a goose.
Cultivating Public Comment
Most of these people who speak up, in-person or via zoom, put a lot of thought into what they want to say to you. They're scared to death just to speak in public and they get treated like cattle just to make sure you have plenty of time to spend discussing non-binding political opinion messages to the legislature that only represent the beliefs of the board members. Really??
Why should anyone want to get up at 3AM to drive here and 4 hours back through two metro rush hours, only to run the risk of having some red-faced volunteer bang a $5 Wal-Mart gavel and bark at them in public? That's on YouTube. Look it up. They're not coming back!!
Do you know how hard it is to get people to do this? They're scared to death and they're convinced by your official actions that you're not listening. Let people have their say and if we're here all day then so be it. You say you want input but your focus is on the egg-timer.
The Real Function of Public Members
To the Public Members on all 4 boards that aren't speaking up: your job is to represent and protect the citizens of TX, to ask the hard questions that I would ask if I was sitting in your chair; to make the professional members question themselves and help them arrive at a point that best serves Texans, not to help board members pass ego-driven rules we don't need, or rubber-stamp DEI initiatives cloaked as Workforce solutions. The job's not easy, the pay sucks, and you're not here to make friends. Do your job or resign your seat and let someone else have a shot at asking the questions.
Two of the LPC members publicly messaged the newest public member at his first meeting three weeks ago that he needs to adopt a group-think attitude and not rock the boat. That's on video, too, go look it up. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. To me that action is a big clue as to what these public members are probably told during their on-board training; don't make any waves and just follow the lead of the pro members. I can't prove that but the LPC Board alone has seen, what, 3-4 public members quit in the past 18 months before their terms were up? I see a pattern.
Austin, We Have a Problem
There's a reason this room is empty and we're not going to blame it on Covid. 80,000 licensees and you can't get 20 people to show up. There's a reason the public members are almost universally quiet as church-mice and quit early. For whoever needs to hear this, if the BHEC staff is NOT doing the training for new board members, especially the public ones, they should be!
I have a lot more to say and many more supporting arguments. I'd love to have a rational dialogue with board members, especially the public ones, but my 3 minutes are up!
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About the Author
Phillip's background has blessed him with a variety of interests, skills, and tools to get things done. He spent 25 years in the printing and marketing industry before meeting Kathleen Mills in 2015. They quickly figured out that they made a pretty good business team and, owing to Kathleen's story, embarked upon a mission that would see the creation of PracticeMentors.us and eventually the Association for Mental Health Professionals.
