Interview with Chandler City Councilwoman Trinity Donovan - Parts 4 and 5 of 5
After MUCH delay, I have finally been able to transcribe the rest of my interview with Chandler, Arizona's excellent City Councilwoman Trinity Donovan. I'm including the two final installments (4 & 5) together. Prior installments include Parts 1, 2 and 3.
(As for the delay, I can only claim an extraordinarily overwhelming work and school schedule that have kept me inundated. Between my full-time job, a part time teaching role, taking part-time college coursework and my other obligations, it has averaged about an 80 hour week. Fortunately, with the end of the semester last week, I've cut back down to simply working one full-time job - JOY!)
I'd like to thank you all for your patience in receiving this final interview installment, and most especially thanks to Councilwoman Donovan, who was doubly gracious - first to give me the interview and second to wait so long to be published in its entirety.
Also, I'd like to note that Councilwoman Donovan will be guest speaking tonight at 7 pm at the District 20 Democrats' district meeting at Desert Breeze Park Substation.
***
(Interview continued from Part 3...)
Geo: You said you worked with ICAN for a couple of summers and then you became the CEO. How do you make that kind of jump from being a summer volunteer to becoming the CEO of an organization?
TD: During the summers I was going to school at Stanford and Stanford had an amazing work study program, that if you had work study in your financial aid package, they would pay - if you worked for a non-profit - they would pay 90% of your salary and the non-profit only had to pay 10%. It would be a Stanford wage, which would be much higher than an Arizona wage, and it was for 40 hours a week.
So ICAN had, my first summer, one full-time employee, the CEO, and had part-time employees working directly with the kids. So for me to be able to work 40 hours a week there and they pay me – it was either eight or ten dollars an hour at that time (which can still be good here in Arizona). So they were paying 90 cents to the dollar for 40 hours a week for me to be there 40 hours.…The CEO worked more than 40 hours a week, but I was able to work almost the same amount of hours as the CEO, when everyone else was working less.
I was able to work directly with the kids, work on programmatic, organization, I guess, and getting field trips for the summer developed, and then also be a resource to the CEO and learn more about the “behind the scenes” work of ICAN and what was happening.
Geo: You were able to get an exposure to the organizational aspects of it that, maybe, someone else might not…
TD: Mm-hmm.
Geo:...and so, did an opening come up, then?
TD: I was graduating from Stanford – I got my Bachelor’s and my Master’s from there - and there were people there who, in September of our Senior year, were already interviewing. That wasn’t me. I had learned in the Spring that the CEO I had worked for was going to be leaving and she suggested I put an application in. Then I was applying for something else in Pittsburgh and a few other things, but had come home and was going to work for ICAN in the summer at least and see where to go. So we interviewed and it just…worked out. It was a great experience for me to be able to run an organization right after college. It was something I had wanted to do, didn’t see that it would necessarily come up right away, but doing that was a better experience than the opportunity I had to go to Pittsburgh, so I chose staying here instead. And I’m glad that I did.
Geo: So, going from that and the United Way, to running for office, what was the trigger there?
TD: I always thought I'd be running for City Council. I just wasn’t sure when.
Geo: “Always” meaning even back when you were in…
TD: Sorry, “Always” should be when I was at ICAN.
Geo: So, after you left Stanford.
TD: Yeah. When I was a kid, that wasn’t something that crossed my mind as being a possibility. But as an adult, I’ve had that in my mind, running for City Council. Didn’t know when. I was speaking in church about how we canbe active in our communities. I really appreciate my opportunities to do service in other countries, but there is so much service that can be done right here. And I talked about those educational statistics that I mentioned before. There was a high school student who was a senior who was playing trumpet that day, sitting in the choir loft, and he gave his number to an usher and asked me to call him. He’s like “This may be weird, you don’t know me, but I think you should run for something and I want to assemble a team to help you.”
So, my first thought was to laugh. (laughs) He actually wanted me to run for the Legislature.
Geo: This is a senior in high school…
TD: …that helped propel my campaign. He was a Flynn Scholar - which I think there are 20 in the state – which are very prestigious scholarships that keeps top students in Arizona, instead of having them go to schools all over the U.S. My first thought was to laugh, especially since he said Legislature, and that wasn’t my interest. But Council was and so we talked about it more. I have a lot of knowledge about our community and a willingness to learn more. I don’t have a lot of knowledge about politics. Now, politics means different things, so non-profits have a lot of politics, but in terms of running a campaign. So he assembled a Press Secretary, Deputy Director, he was my Campaign Manager, volunteer coordinator and many ASU students who had energy and enthusiasm helped me with what my literature should look like, what should my signs look like. The person who did those – the Press Secretary – was also a friend. They were now freshmen in college…
Geo: …at ASU?
TD: Mm-hmm, during most of the campaign. He was then getting, after people saw the literature, was getting job offers on literature. Having those ASU students kept my costs down and was good experience for all of us. You know, I’d get emails from them with the time 10 p.m., midnight, 2 a.m…for some reason, I don’t think I ever got an email that was time-stamped 8 a.m.
Geo: Eight a.m.??
TD: (laughs) There were no 8 a.m. ones!
But they, then, really helped so I could focus on being out in the community. They could help me with ‘here’s my thoughts, how do those, then get…how do I run those by them to make sure they’re more polished,’ perhaps. But then they helped with the strategy of what poll should I stand at fir the first election, they had complicated formulas…
Geo: Wait, what poll you should stand at?
TD: Yeah, standing at the polls.
Geo: And what decision-making was that based on?
TD: It was a very long formula of – we’d have to see how many people do we think are going to be at the polls, which is the best one to be at, what times. And so we picked the Presbyterian Church, north of Germann, between Dobson and Alma School, And that one ended up – Sun Lakes had the most people, but I think that included the early ballots – that one had the most people come on that day. As they’re picking between seven candidates, they may come for one Councilperson. One person said “Well, I know I’m voting for this persona and this person, but I have one left and you’re here. I’m going to be voting for you.” And while that was a little bit of luck, it was also the top poll the past election and so looking at that plus the growth of the area, how many are we predicting would be from there.
They also helped with my walking. I focused on West Chandler first and then went to other areas of Chandler once I finished that. West Chandler was an area I haven’t lived in yet, and many of the people that are running live in South Chandler. So typically you’d think ‘well, I’m going to start walking the neighbourhoods that I know, first, and go out from there. So let’s go in a place where probably no one will be. And there were other people that were out there dropping literature there, but many people have said “I haven’t seen a Councilperson or someone running come to my door and I’ve lived here for 15 years.” So it was that kind of strategy, helped as well.
They also really enjoyed going door-to-door, too. So they assembled teams and would do creative ways of bringing people together, having a marathon. You know, “we’re going to lit-drop for this much time, and then we’re going to have pizza, and then we’re going to lit-drop and then watch a movie, and then we’re going to go out again. Kind of just making it fun. And then bringing in other volunteers – other people in the community in addition to the college students who were excited to help on the campaign, I mean, they were a big piece of helping to move all my campaign forward.
Geo: How did you find fundraising as a candidate?
TD: Fundraising is hard. And it was such a humbling experience. I mean, I’ve raised money for causes, but for me to be the cause is a different experience. We did a really good job of using [funds] – in the first campaign, with the seven people, we were sixth in the amount of money we spent. But then I was second in the amount of votes I got. Then in the second campaign, with three people, we spent the least amount of the three.
Geo: The early numbers I saw were $14 thousand or so, compared to $21 or $28 thousand from the other candidates…
TD: It was about $16 thousand total for the first campaign, so it might have been $14 thousand for one of the financial reports (an then we probably had some outstanding bills after that from the campaign). And then I think it was either $34 or $36 thousand total, for both campaigns, versus I think it was up to $60 thousand for one of the other candidates. I didn’t want to be spending money that I didn’t have, as well. It was easier to get money after the first campaign, because I had done so well. But really, it’s such a humbling experience to ask for money for myself, calling people up. I’d be so thankful for strangers who’d be giving me money, who had hope for my campaign and then friends that I’d had for a long time – regardless of the amount of money that they gave. A friend of mine: ‘this is important to you and we want to give you money’…Hearing that story of friends putting money towards my campaign and friends as well, it was just amazing.
We had the most - I think we had a lot more – smaller amounts, but the most people donating in those smaller amounts really made it so that we could have…I don’t know if we had the most people overall donating, but definitely the most under-25 donations of everyone.
Geo: Under-25 dollars....
TD: Yes, under–25 dollars. So to have people give whatever they made it so that we could really campaign,
Geo: Whom would you call? How did you target people to call?
TD: My campaign manager was very good at making sure that I was calling the list of friends and family that I had. After the campaign we did a debriefing, and it was good to hear him say he was surprised at how well we did in my asking for money from individuals and getting so much. Because typically people rely - well, typically may be a generalization that isn’t true - but you can see nationally as well as through many campaigns that people are relying in on PAC, the Political Action Committee, funds and funds from really those that can give larger amounts of money, or the prominent people who are influential in the community. And it would have been great to get money from them, but that wasn’t money that we could get, at least through the first election.
So looking at living here 20 years, I have a base of people that I know and just asking them for money, sending them emails for money and then following up with phone calls and having that communication as the campaign is moving forward, ‘This is what’s happening”. Doing house parties - that had mixed success with fundraising but were really good in just getting to know other people, other people’s friends in the community.
Geo: Did you encounter, in your fundraising, especially with people who were already your friends or maybe with members of the church, did you encounter any of the wedge issue questions come up, that seem to dominate a lot of the state and national level politics? Were there any litmus tests, “where do you stand on this”, or “how do you view that?”
TD: There was some of that. Typically it wasn’t – I think you’re mentioning about is when I call a friend. I know someone who this did happen to her – she was running in another city, for School Board, actually – she calls asking for money and the other person’s like “Well, how do you stand on this?” Which has nothing to do with the school board. And she says “well, you’ve known me for ten years and you’re asking me about this issue?” (laughs) And so I did encounter some of that.
Our elections in Chandler are changing to now be in September and November when, through all of this that we’ve just experienced in the Presidential elections. And that may change how much more we’re asked about partisan issues and issues of national scope. There were people I’d have conversations with that I didn’t necessarily agree with them on those issues, or also didn’t give them the answer they wanted to hear on something. If there’s an issue that’s pro or con, sometimes there are things that are more in the middle that we may need to look at. It’s not how many issues we try to make black and white, because it’s easier that way to pick a side on the issue – and you’lll have camaraderie from this side and people to hate on the other side – and feel better than the people on this side that you demonize instead of getting to know. But there is often so much gray in these issues that it’s pieces of one side have worth and pieces of another - that you agree with, too, because there may be other pieces of their argument that have worth but that you don’t agree with. But how do we get to a ground that, when people aren’t speaking on the same terms, you can’t get to a solution.
There was someone with a more national issue who, we didn’t necessarily agree, but I spoke the truth that wasn’t necessarily against what he would say, but just wasn’t on his side, necessarily. And he ended up sending me a donation. Whih I think it was good in that, honesty, while it would be easy for me to pick a side on the issues and know that these people don’t like me and these people do, now. But when you don’t pick a side, you run the risk of both sides not liking you.
Geo: Right, because you’re “not taking a stand”, you’re kind of “hiding” your view?
TD: Well, it depends. I’m pretty practical and rational, and sometimes there’s so much emotion caught in the sides of the issue. Like the Mark Pentz case, when we were running. But the rational was not about the emotion of the sides, but what’s best for Chandler. I wasn’t on Council when they were going through al of this, I wasn’t in the Executive Sessions. But how do we run a review? And how do we make those changes that make it so a person can know what goals are set and whether they’re achieving them. So in that issue it wasn’t whether “am I for or against Mark Pentz”, is was “here’s the process that’s happening” and we fixed that process.
Geo: Have you ever just responded to someone and said “You know, that’s really not an issue we deal with on City Council, so it’s kind of not germane to this campaign?”
TD: Sometimes I would. That would be, perhaps, my first response. One thing could be like, well…(laughs)…thinking better of it… My first response could be “this is what the Council’s about” and they’d say “oh, okay, then I won’t ask that.” Others would be like “you didn’t answer my question…” (laughs) …”and so, thanks for explaining that to me, but I still want to know the answer.” I’d start with that and it would satisfy some, but I would be open to talking with people more in a discussion, rather than a “yes or no” answer on some issues.
There are other people who talked about a national issue and I didn’t agree with them and they spoke what I thought was exaggerations of the truth or mistruth…(laughs) is that a new word?
Geo: We’re allowed. Language is a living thing, you know, we’re allowed to create…
TD: I mean, I had a choice in talking to him, I could have just listened to him, not agreed but not let him know. But it was something I felt I needed to correct him on, which was dangerous for me. It could have been that he just needed a venting session, I was listening to him so now I have his vote, but I corrected him on some things he said. We had a great conversation afterwards, though we definitely didn’t agree on all points of that issue. But he came away respecting me for the conversation we had. And he said he would vote for me…(laughs) We left not frustrated, which is a good thing, too. Really having a conversation, instead.
Geo: Well, I certainly appreciate your time. We’ve gone over and you’ve been very gracious. Thank you very much Councilwoman Donovan.
TD: Thank you.
(As for the delay, I can only claim an extraordinarily overwhelming work and school schedule that have kept me inundated. Between my full-time job, a part time teaching role, taking part-time college coursework and my other obligations, it has averaged about an 80 hour week. Fortunately, with the end of the semester last week, I've cut back down to simply working one full-time job - JOY!)
I'd like to thank you all for your patience in receiving this final interview installment, and most especially thanks to Councilwoman Donovan, who was doubly gracious - first to give me the interview and second to wait so long to be published in its entirety.
Also, I'd like to note that Councilwoman Donovan will be guest speaking tonight at 7 pm at the District 20 Democrats' district meeting at Desert Breeze Park Substation.
***
(Interview continued from Part 3...)
Geo: You said you worked with ICAN for a couple of summers and then you became the CEO. How do you make that kind of jump from being a summer volunteer to becoming the CEO of an organization?
TD: During the summers I was going to school at Stanford and Stanford had an amazing work study program, that if you had work study in your financial aid package, they would pay - if you worked for a non-profit - they would pay 90% of your salary and the non-profit only had to pay 10%. It would be a Stanford wage, which would be much higher than an Arizona wage, and it was for 40 hours a week.
So ICAN had, my first summer, one full-time employee, the CEO, and had part-time employees working directly with the kids. So for me to be able to work 40 hours a week there and they pay me – it was either eight or ten dollars an hour at that time (which can still be good here in Arizona). So they were paying 90 cents to the dollar for 40 hours a week for me to be there 40 hours.…The CEO worked more than 40 hours a week, but I was able to work almost the same amount of hours as the CEO, when everyone else was working less.
I was able to work directly with the kids, work on programmatic, organization, I guess, and getting field trips for the summer developed, and then also be a resource to the CEO and learn more about the “behind the scenes” work of ICAN and what was happening.
Geo: You were able to get an exposure to the organizational aspects of it that, maybe, someone else might not…
TD: Mm-hmm.
Geo:...and so, did an opening come up, then?
TD: I was graduating from Stanford – I got my Bachelor’s and my Master’s from there - and there were people there who, in September of our Senior year, were already interviewing. That wasn’t me. I had learned in the Spring that the CEO I had worked for was going to be leaving and she suggested I put an application in. Then I was applying for something else in Pittsburgh and a few other things, but had come home and was going to work for ICAN in the summer at least and see where to go. So we interviewed and it just…worked out. It was a great experience for me to be able to run an organization right after college. It was something I had wanted to do, didn’t see that it would necessarily come up right away, but doing that was a better experience than the opportunity I had to go to Pittsburgh, so I chose staying here instead. And I’m glad that I did.
Geo: So, going from that and the United Way, to running for office, what was the trigger there?
TD: I always thought I'd be running for City Council. I just wasn’t sure when.
Geo: “Always” meaning even back when you were in…
TD: Sorry, “Always” should be when I was at ICAN.
Geo: So, after you left Stanford.
TD: Yeah. When I was a kid, that wasn’t something that crossed my mind as being a possibility. But as an adult, I’ve had that in my mind, running for City Council. Didn’t know when. I was speaking in church about how we canbe active in our communities. I really appreciate my opportunities to do service in other countries, but there is so much service that can be done right here. And I talked about those educational statistics that I mentioned before. There was a high school student who was a senior who was playing trumpet that day, sitting in the choir loft, and he gave his number to an usher and asked me to call him. He’s like “This may be weird, you don’t know me, but I think you should run for something and I want to assemble a team to help you.”
So, my first thought was to laugh. (laughs) He actually wanted me to run for the Legislature.
Geo: This is a senior in high school…
TD: …that helped propel my campaign. He was a Flynn Scholar - which I think there are 20 in the state – which are very prestigious scholarships that keeps top students in Arizona, instead of having them go to schools all over the U.S. My first thought was to laugh, especially since he said Legislature, and that wasn’t my interest. But Council was and so we talked about it more. I have a lot of knowledge about our community and a willingness to learn more. I don’t have a lot of knowledge about politics. Now, politics means different things, so non-profits have a lot of politics, but in terms of running a campaign. So he assembled a Press Secretary, Deputy Director, he was my Campaign Manager, volunteer coordinator and many ASU students who had energy and enthusiasm helped me with what my literature should look like, what should my signs look like. The person who did those – the Press Secretary – was also a friend. They were now freshmen in college…
Geo: …at ASU?
TD: Mm-hmm, during most of the campaign. He was then getting, after people saw the literature, was getting job offers on literature. Having those ASU students kept my costs down and was good experience for all of us. You know, I’d get emails from them with the time 10 p.m., midnight, 2 a.m…for some reason, I don’t think I ever got an email that was time-stamped 8 a.m.
Geo: Eight a.m.??
TD: (laughs) There were no 8 a.m. ones!
But they, then, really helped so I could focus on being out in the community. They could help me with ‘here’s my thoughts, how do those, then get…how do I run those by them to make sure they’re more polished,’ perhaps. But then they helped with the strategy of what poll should I stand at fir the first election, they had complicated formulas…
Geo: Wait, what poll you should stand at?
TD: Yeah, standing at the polls.
Geo: And what decision-making was that based on?
TD: It was a very long formula of – we’d have to see how many people do we think are going to be at the polls, which is the best one to be at, what times. And so we picked the Presbyterian Church, north of Germann, between Dobson and Alma School, And that one ended up – Sun Lakes had the most people, but I think that included the early ballots – that one had the most people come on that day. As they’re picking between seven candidates, they may come for one Councilperson. One person said “Well, I know I’m voting for this persona and this person, but I have one left and you’re here. I’m going to be voting for you.” And while that was a little bit of luck, it was also the top poll the past election and so looking at that plus the growth of the area, how many are we predicting would be from there.
They also helped with my walking. I focused on West Chandler first and then went to other areas of Chandler once I finished that. West Chandler was an area I haven’t lived in yet, and many of the people that are running live in South Chandler. So typically you’d think ‘well, I’m going to start walking the neighbourhoods that I know, first, and go out from there. So let’s go in a place where probably no one will be. And there were other people that were out there dropping literature there, but many people have said “I haven’t seen a Councilperson or someone running come to my door and I’ve lived here for 15 years.” So it was that kind of strategy, helped as well.
They also really enjoyed going door-to-door, too. So they assembled teams and would do creative ways of bringing people together, having a marathon. You know, “we’re going to lit-drop for this much time, and then we’re going to have pizza, and then we’re going to lit-drop and then watch a movie, and then we’re going to go out again. Kind of just making it fun. And then bringing in other volunteers – other people in the community in addition to the college students who were excited to help on the campaign, I mean, they were a big piece of helping to move all my campaign forward.
Geo: How did you find fundraising as a candidate?
TD: Fundraising is hard. And it was such a humbling experience. I mean, I’ve raised money for causes, but for me to be the cause is a different experience. We did a really good job of using [funds] – in the first campaign, with the seven people, we were sixth in the amount of money we spent. But then I was second in the amount of votes I got. Then in the second campaign, with three people, we spent the least amount of the three.
Geo: The early numbers I saw were $14 thousand or so, compared to $21 or $28 thousand from the other candidates…
TD: It was about $16 thousand total for the first campaign, so it might have been $14 thousand for one of the financial reports (an then we probably had some outstanding bills after that from the campaign). And then I think it was either $34 or $36 thousand total, for both campaigns, versus I think it was up to $60 thousand for one of the other candidates. I didn’t want to be spending money that I didn’t have, as well. It was easier to get money after the first campaign, because I had done so well. But really, it’s such a humbling experience to ask for money for myself, calling people up. I’d be so thankful for strangers who’d be giving me money, who had hope for my campaign and then friends that I’d had for a long time – regardless of the amount of money that they gave. A friend of mine: ‘this is important to you and we want to give you money’…Hearing that story of friends putting money towards my campaign and friends as well, it was just amazing.
We had the most - I think we had a lot more – smaller amounts, but the most people donating in those smaller amounts really made it so that we could have…I don’t know if we had the most people overall donating, but definitely the most under-25 donations of everyone.
Geo: Under-25 dollars....
TD: Yes, under–25 dollars. So to have people give whatever they made it so that we could really campaign,
Geo: Whom would you call? How did you target people to call?
TD: My campaign manager was very good at making sure that I was calling the list of friends and family that I had. After the campaign we did a debriefing, and it was good to hear him say he was surprised at how well we did in my asking for money from individuals and getting so much. Because typically people rely - well, typically may be a generalization that isn’t true - but you can see nationally as well as through many campaigns that people are relying in on PAC, the Political Action Committee, funds and funds from really those that can give larger amounts of money, or the prominent people who are influential in the community. And it would have been great to get money from them, but that wasn’t money that we could get, at least through the first election.
So looking at living here 20 years, I have a base of people that I know and just asking them for money, sending them emails for money and then following up with phone calls and having that communication as the campaign is moving forward, ‘This is what’s happening”. Doing house parties - that had mixed success with fundraising but were really good in just getting to know other people, other people’s friends in the community.
Geo: Did you encounter, in your fundraising, especially with people who were already your friends or maybe with members of the church, did you encounter any of the wedge issue questions come up, that seem to dominate a lot of the state and national level politics? Were there any litmus tests, “where do you stand on this”, or “how do you view that?”
TD: There was some of that. Typically it wasn’t – I think you’re mentioning about is when I call a friend. I know someone who this did happen to her – she was running in another city, for School Board, actually – she calls asking for money and the other person’s like “Well, how do you stand on this?” Which has nothing to do with the school board. And she says “well, you’ve known me for ten years and you’re asking me about this issue?” (laughs) And so I did encounter some of that.
Our elections in Chandler are changing to now be in September and November when, through all of this that we’ve just experienced in the Presidential elections. And that may change how much more we’re asked about partisan issues and issues of national scope. There were people I’d have conversations with that I didn’t necessarily agree with them on those issues, or also didn’t give them the answer they wanted to hear on something. If there’s an issue that’s pro or con, sometimes there are things that are more in the middle that we may need to look at. It’s not how many issues we try to make black and white, because it’s easier that way to pick a side on the issue – and you’lll have camaraderie from this side and people to hate on the other side – and feel better than the people on this side that you demonize instead of getting to know. But there is often so much gray in these issues that it’s pieces of one side have worth and pieces of another - that you agree with, too, because there may be other pieces of their argument that have worth but that you don’t agree with. But how do we get to a ground that, when people aren’t speaking on the same terms, you can’t get to a solution.
There was someone with a more national issue who, we didn’t necessarily agree, but I spoke the truth that wasn’t necessarily against what he would say, but just wasn’t on his side, necessarily. And he ended up sending me a donation. Whih I think it was good in that, honesty, while it would be easy for me to pick a side on the issues and know that these people don’t like me and these people do, now. But when you don’t pick a side, you run the risk of both sides not liking you.
Geo: Right, because you’re “not taking a stand”, you’re kind of “hiding” your view?
TD: Well, it depends. I’m pretty practical and rational, and sometimes there’s so much emotion caught in the sides of the issue. Like the Mark Pentz case, when we were running. But the rational was not about the emotion of the sides, but what’s best for Chandler. I wasn’t on Council when they were going through al of this, I wasn’t in the Executive Sessions. But how do we run a review? And how do we make those changes that make it so a person can know what goals are set and whether they’re achieving them. So in that issue it wasn’t whether “am I for or against Mark Pentz”, is was “here’s the process that’s happening” and we fixed that process.
Geo: Have you ever just responded to someone and said “You know, that’s really not an issue we deal with on City Council, so it’s kind of not germane to this campaign?”
TD: Sometimes I would. That would be, perhaps, my first response. One thing could be like, well…(laughs)…thinking better of it… My first response could be “this is what the Council’s about” and they’d say “oh, okay, then I won’t ask that.” Others would be like “you didn’t answer my question…” (laughs) …”and so, thanks for explaining that to me, but I still want to know the answer.” I’d start with that and it would satisfy some, but I would be open to talking with people more in a discussion, rather than a “yes or no” answer on some issues.
There are other people who talked about a national issue and I didn’t agree with them and they spoke what I thought was exaggerations of the truth or mistruth…(laughs) is that a new word?
Geo: We’re allowed. Language is a living thing, you know, we’re allowed to create…
TD: I mean, I had a choice in talking to him, I could have just listened to him, not agreed but not let him know. But it was something I felt I needed to correct him on, which was dangerous for me. It could have been that he just needed a venting session, I was listening to him so now I have his vote, but I corrected him on some things he said. We had a great conversation afterwards, though we definitely didn’t agree on all points of that issue. But he came away respecting me for the conversation we had. And he said he would vote for me…(laughs) We left not frustrated, which is a good thing, too. Really having a conversation, instead.
Geo: Well, I certainly appreciate your time. We’ve gone over and you’ve been very gracious. Thank you very much Councilwoman Donovan.
TD: Thank you.
posted by Geo at 10:06 AM
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