For months before I started saying anything in meetings, I just observed. For the most part, that's still what I do.
But yes, I do speak on issues here and there. I make it a point to speak at the millage rate and budget hearings every year. Not that they listen, but first of all, I represent a sizable block of people who have consistently turned out on Election Day to support me with their votes. I told people I would stay engaged to keep them informed and represent them, either way. Because I keep my word, I need to speak to make their interests known to the Mayor and Council. Whether the Mayor and Council listen and take anything under advisement is a completely separate issue. I can't ensure that they do the right thing. I can only ensure that I do.
When I speak, I make it a point to be clear and firm, but professional. I don't raise my voice. But, I speak up so the room (and cameras) can hear, and I don't cower, mince words, or kowtow. I show due respect, but not their desired deference.
I speak to them the way a supervisor typically speaks to a subordinate, because that is what the relationship between the public and its elected (hired) officials is supposed to be. Public officials have forgotten that. That's what's wrong with government at all levels in this country. Part of my goal is to restore that understanding on both sides.
The most common feedback I hear from anyone outside the circle who attends Sugar Hill meetings centers around the amount of self-congratulation between the members of the Council and the amount of brown-nosing (to use a more polite term) by employees and appointees. I've even heard about an ardent supporter commenting on it at a local bar. And, I've heard some pretty entertaining jokes and impressions of it over the years.
Jokes aside, it demonstrates the kind of attitude that they think everyone should have toward them in meetings. Anything short of that angers and annoys them. It's inappropriate on their part, unprofessional, and embarrassing. And quite frankly, as I've started attending other cities' meetings, I've noticed that it's strikingly unusual.
While the Mayor, Council, appointees, and employees clutch their precious pearls at my "attitude", not infrequently, members of the public who see what I do seem disappointed that I'm not MORE forceful.
Over these years, I've learned that it's important to speak up at meetings, but the real capacity for change is not in anything anyone will ever say to this Mayor and Council or in how they say it. It's in what you say to the public and what they choose to do with that information.