RCGA GATHERS: COUNCILMAN EMPHASIZES COOPERATION

Cape Girardeau City Councilman David Limbaugh Wednesday told an area civic group that factious rivals in the city should strive to resolve conflicts rather than pretend they don't exist.

Limbaugh was the keynote speaker at the Regional Commerce and Growth Association's monthly membership meeting at the Cape Girardeau Holiday Inn.

The city councilman told the RCGA members that although relations between the group and the city council and Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce have improved, some conflicts remain.

But he stressed that some discord is inevitable among various city governments and regional groups that represent different interests.

When the RCGA was formed in 1988, the chamber's refusal to join the regional group prompted some RCGA members to form a rival chamber, the Cape Centre Chamber of Commerce, which has since folded.

Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce members said the decision not to join the RCGA was due to strong differences between the two groups.

Limbaugh said some of the friction between the city council and the RCGA might still exist. But he said the groups should continue to strive to work together while recognizing different interests and goals.

"None of us should be satisfied with a mere truce between formerly rival factions," Limbaugh said. "We should all press for a genuine mutual understanding in an effort to define the areas where we can agree and those where we can respectfully agree to disagree."

Limbaugh said there are several broad, common goals among the RCGA, chamber and Cape Girardeau City Council. They include such things as: inter-city harmony, regional cooperation, economic growth and development, superior educational systems in the region and tourism.

"Our list of common goals goes on and on because we all want to improve the entire region, make it more vibrant and a more attractive place for people to live," he said.

But the councilman said that the interests of Cape Girardeau sometimes differ from those of neighboring cities, and some tensions are inevitable.

"Not everything which is good for Scott City, or Jackson, or Sikeston is necessarily going to rebound to the benefit of Cape Girardeau, at least in the same proportions," Limbaugh said.

"We must accept the reality that our various regions sometimes have potentially conflicting interests and we should respect each other for attempting to protect and promote those respective interests provided we all deal with each other honestly and openly and know where to draw the line."

Limbaugh used the example of a proposed recreational lake in Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties that apparently has died because Bollinger County residents have rejected the idea in a straw poll.

He said that although many residents of Cape Girardeau County think the lake would be a boon for the region, a majority of Bollinger County residents apparently believe the benefits to the region don't offset the detriments the lake would have on them personally.

"We are dreaming if we expect them to subordinate their perceived local interests for the overall good of the region," Limbaugh said.

He also discussed recent internal bickering among members of Cape Girardeau's city council.

"Many have suggested that bickering is the worst possible evil and is more detrimental to government than anything imaginable," Limbaugh said. "I subscribe to a different view, myself, which is that it is Pollyannish to expect that total harmony will always prevail, regardless of the controversial nature of a particular issue with which the council is dealing."

Limbaugh said it's sometimes necessary to confront issues "head on" despite bitter debate and contention in order to operate the city productively and fairly.

"If you believe that conflict is to be avoided at all costs, then good government becomes secondary, and the citizens clearly suffer," he said.

Limbaugh said that although internal conflict can retard a city's progress, it's no more detrimental than "city bashing and the many brush fires that are caused by our incessant critics, all of which require a diversion of council and staff energy to solve and eliminate."

The councilman also praised RCGA director Walt Wildman for his work to mend the rift between the city, chamber and RCGA.

"Regardless of what I may have believed before, I do now believe that the RCGA, under the tutelage of Walt Wildman, has entered a new era," Limbaugh said. "It is my hope that we can all work together in mending fences, and eradicating whatever residue of mutual suspicion and distrust that may remain."