Sometimes I wish that we scrutinized our politicians as much as we do our retailers.

For example, occasionally I’ll get a call from a customer who is furious because the item she ordered yesterday hasn’t arrived yet (at 10 in the morning). Or maybe another one is annoyed because the shipping charge is $8.95, but three years ago it was only $6.95.

But if you ask these same people to take the time to scrutinize where their thousands of property tax dollars are going, they don’t have a response. I know this because I’m crazy enough to ask.

Part of the blame might lie in the way our government is structured. A republican democracy allows us to be very lazy citizens, ignore our elected officials and to express an opinion in a reactive manner, only after those politicians make a decision. Just like the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie, a republican democracy lets us “set it, and forget it.”

No one expects every citizen to drop everything, start attending council meetings and influence city policy. Plus, they only set out about 40 chairs at the meeting, and no, you can’t sit on my lap. And you hear the phrase “get more involved,” it instantly sounds like drudgery. It is, but it doesn’t have to be.

It’s a drudgery because we make it that way. There’s no input from the citizens during the meeting, and if we want to speak, we’re assigned a 3-minute slot before any business actually takes place. That’s not participatory; that’s the citizens being allowed to say something quickly, and then sit quietly in the corner while mommy and daddy talk about important things.

I don’t blame the current council for this atmosphere; they inherited it, and it’s the same format used in most other cities as well. It’s easier to just keep doing what’s always been done, and the job is easier with fewer citizens poking around.

So how could it be different? If you’ve ever watched C-SPAN, you might occasionally catch “Prime Minister’s Questions,” an often rowdy affair where the British prime minister answers questions from members of Parliament (MPs). It’s often an antagonistic affair, where leaders of the opposition pose tough questions to the prime minister, while both sides are jeering, cheering, and shouting.

It’s a lot of fun to watch, and is easily the most interesting thing on C-SPAN. Our cities could capture more of that active participatory spirit through quarterly or semi-annual town hall forums that are devoted to a single topic.

Maple Valley’s last town hall was kind of a snoozer until we got to the parts where citizens could give their input. At that point, there were tough questions for the councilors, and it was the first signs of life for a democracy that usually looks dead.

Getting people to show up occasionally is one thing, but better communication is the second part. Some of these political issues are complex, and our cities don’t do a good job of providing a simple summary for us to learn from.

For example, what are the three most important issues facing your city right now? I’m talking about big picture items like land use, growth, public safety, services, and so forth. If you look on your city’s Web site, those front-burner issues can’t be found anywhere. Instead, we’re treated to pages and pages of facts, but no ongoing discussions.

We’re stuck in a rut. We only make decisions on these big picture items at election time, and wait for our elected officials to fix the problem during their term. We don’t pay attention again until two years later, when we repeat the process again. We’re not proactive, so why should the elected officials be?

If you’re happy with the system we have, then just continue to do nothing. Personally, I believe the costs of doing nothing are huge. You’ll probably burn an extra 50 cents or a dollar in gas while sitting in commuter traffic today, but will you contact your councilors and ask them to think ahead and solve this problem? If it was an overcharge on your restaurant bill, would you act differently?

Ryan Ryals lives in Maple Valley and writes a weekly column about politics and life in the city.

Reach him at ryanryals@ymail.com.