Involved citizenry a vital characteristic

For those of you interested in quality of life issues in our community, I want to describe the disappointing outcome of efforts to create a committee of citizens that would provide research, support and recommendations to the city commission. 
Several of us from Sustainable Shawnee believed with the new city government and new composition of the commission there was opportunity to forge a partnership between the city government and the citizens of Shawnee to address such issues as water conservation, recycling and the implementation of the master trails plan.
We recognized the city has limited time and resources, so we felt an advisory group could do some of the “leg work” of doing research on alternatives, perhaps finding additional funding and making recommendations. We envisioned the group and the city as allies, not adversaries.
We approached Mayor Linda Peterson with our suggestion, and she invited us to submit a proposal with a list of people who would be interested in serving on such a committee.
We did so, and the list of potential  committee members included representatives from all sectors of the community, many of whom have no association with Sustainable Shawnee.
We made ourselves available at several commission meetings to answer questions and address any concerns of the commissioners, and we began to realize there was real resistance to our proposal.
We wondered if we were being thought of as trouble-making tree-huggers, but we believed if we met one-on-one with each of the commissioners we could certainly allay their fears.
We did so, with the exception of Commissioner Billy Collier who did not return our phone calls, and thought that we had successfully corrected any misconceptions about our motives and intentions.
Apparently, we were wrong. When the vote was finally taken, the proposal was eviscerated  the number of proposed members was reduced by half; the work of the as-yet-to-be-formed committee would be reviewed in June; people willing to serve must fill out an application; the group would only address issues proposed by the commission.
Clearly, there was a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the commissioners. We next asked Mayor Peterson to try to ascertain the true feelings of the commissioners, for we were reluctant to approach anyone to work on a committee whose work and recommendations would not be welcomed.
She did so at the end of the last commission meeting, stating that before proceeding we needed some assurance of support from the commissioners. The silence was deafening and the message was very clear.  There will be no Citizens Advisory Committee for Sustainability.
Given the number of serious issues being faced by the city, I hoped the commission would welcome citizen involvement and support.
I am disappointed this does not seem to be the case, for I believe one of the main characteristics of a vital and progressive community is an involved citizenry in partnership with city government. This citizen is discouraged.