There’s a video that recently went viral on TikTok outlining the “ADHD Poop Rule,” which suggests that the best way to declutter is to ask yourself if you’d be willing to clean poop off of something in order to keep it. It’s a less refined take on the Marie Kondo method, but equally effective.
We’re pretty sure that’s the rule the City of Reno followed when they decided to scrap the draft of the new business license code. That document, according to many local business owners, was a steaming pile of poop. This got us wondering: Did city staff even read it before pushing it out to the community for review?
In an email to business owners, the media and others, the city (and we’re assuming here it was Director of Business Licensing Lance Ferrato who crafted it) said it was grateful the community showed enough trust to share their concerns.
Anyone who has attended a public meeting lately and sat through hours of public comment should know that the community is deeply distrustful of local government, particularly the City of Reno. Folks have no issues sharing their concerns, especially because they are often forced to in the face of what many consider to be the most difficult local government to deal with even on the most basic of levels.
What the city likely, and surprisingly, didn’t anticipate was the level of outrage the draft codes would unleash. One read through the document was enough for us to see that it was so daft and poorly conceived that it would likely be illegal. And yet, the city trotted it out for public review and spent time explaining the updates and gathering feedback.
City staffers were quick to respond to critics online—some with their personal social media accounts that do not disclose that they work for the city—reminding everyone enraged by what they were reading that the documents were just drafts. Not all of these hair-brained rules would stick, they said, they’re just ideas from which to start.
But the city’s starting point at such an extreme position for local business—such as banning people with any criminal history from owning a business or from getting a job in a wide swath of business types—only further eroded community trust, something many of those who interface with Reno know all too well is a feature, not an abnormality, at City Hall.
The drafts inspired so much rage that they prompted local business owners to mobilize to put an end to obvious nonsense. The city ultimately caved.
To be clear: The most obvious concern was the poo pile was presented to the public in the first place. It did not spark joy—a key Kondo precept. This is despite city staff attempts to gaslight those who had concerns by giving themselves a pat on the back when announcing they were scrapping the whole thing.
“See, we listened,” city staff said, attempting to reframe the poo pile problem as a positive.
The city took a basic step in attempting to restore the trust of business owners. The fundamentals of trust-building, however, start not with “listening” to the obvious rage fest that was emerging citywide, but by not foisting a pile of dogshit onto the public in the first place.
Especially one so obviously flawed that even the embarrassing mayor was embarrassed by it.
—Kristen Hackbarth & Bob Conrad
