As the Trio was watching TV on Martin Luther King Day and the pre-inauguration events, last week, Hammerhead was seeking “something” that he could announce as “hitting the nail on the head.” Eagle-Eyes jumped in and said, “The pieces are coming together for me; we need a new yardstick to help us size-up new legislative proposals, resolutions, community projects, etc that come before various governmental agencies, commission, and/or committees at the at the City, County, State and National level.

As regular readers know, this blog team (The Trio, Eagle-Eyes and Hammerhead) has been commenting on the current theme of “change” for several months. Governmentally speaking, change is in the air! However; how do we determine (measure) if these proposed changes will have any significant results or impact? To get the ball rolling, Hammerhead asked The Trio to get together and design a new yardstick that would help these governmental groups “hit the nail on the head” with their new proposals.

With a couple of critical issues coming up for discussion at tonight’s Petaluma City Council meeting, The Trio spent the weekend discussing and debating what criteria should be included in the design of such a new a tool to help the process. Time was short; consequently all they could produce was a conceptual plan. They concluded that the public – the citizenry – should have an opportunity to submit their ideas.

Me wanted the first 12″ of the yardstick to be used to determine if the new proposal made “Common Sense.” (Sound practical judgment derived from experience rather than study.)

Myself wanted a higher level of cognitive power, so he suggested that the next 12″ should measure “The Logic” underlying the new idea. (The branch of philosophy that deals with the theory of deductive and inductive arguments and aims to distinguish good from bad reasoning.)

I wanted each new proposal to be examined to determine whether or not it would result in “The greatest good for the greatest number of people.” (This will require information gathered through surveys and research studies.)

So far, so good; but, these are just nice sounding phrases; where are the specifics? We need more specific criteria that will really measure the potential benefits. OK readers; it’s your turn. What bullet points do you think should make up the first 12″ (Common Sense), the next 12″ (Logic), and the last 12″ (Greatest Good)? Enter your comments below.

Eagle-Eyes will review each thought and the Trio will select those that “fly high” and “jump off the page.” They will be collated and reported in a future blog. Since we want to help Hammerhead achieve his goal of “hitting the nail on the head,” this new tool will be called the Whammer Yardstick.