That last post was sarcasm. This isn’t.
Gearing up for another election, I have been noticing a disturbing trend. I do not know if it is because I have become more active and informed, or because we as a community are becoming more active and informed, but I thought I would write about it and perhaps a few of our more intelligent political candidates will stumble by and read it.
There are many citizens of this town who are dissatisfied with the actions of our elected officials. Some have an issue. Some have every issue. Some have issues that aren’t even issues to anyone but them. They want to get some new blood in office. They want to replace everyone on the commission. They want a new mayor. They want to revamp the whole system. They want Change. But many of them don’t really understand what it is they would be changing.
The candidates see the issues people are talking about, and they promise they will change things. They will call for a vote on this, and get rid of this rule, or that city expense. Too much control, or not enough.
But let’s go back a few years. Explore the Big Sky. City Golf. Pool maintenance. A mayor that people were dissatisfied with, a city commission people were dissatisfied with. Up and comers promising to change things.
Is it different today? Can new people in office really make the changes or will it take more than that? I don’t know. But we all need to become more educated about what is possible to change and do, within the very real limits under which our politicians must operate.
Let’s curb the tendency, on both sides, to promise or demand things out of reason. The mayor of this town cannot control the City Manager, but the Commission working together can. The mayor cannot lower the budget, or enact a time limit, but the Commission working together can. The mayor is a figurehead, the star of the show, and as such, gets most of the acclaim, and the blame. First in line for applause or rotten tomatoes, as it were. But the mayor is just one person out of five. The entire cast, working together, can exercise the will of the people, if we the people can ever agree on what that is.
So to the politicians running for office - think about your promises, and educate yourselves. Do you really want to get elected, and then find out you can’t do that?
3 Responses to “That last post was sarcasm. This isn’t.”
1 Wolfpack 10 August 2007 @ 3:06 pm
That’s what’s funny about some who say Stebbins was elected because she promised change. We voters only changed one voice out of 5 and expected real change. There was change in that some of Gray’s pet issues where back burnered (casiNO) but Lawton was never impacted because he enjoyed 4 loyal votes on the commission. Any real change will only be possible with two new commissioners or a new city manager which is coming.
2 Walter Greenspan 11 August 2007 @ 10:53 pm
Or, Wolfpack, if the city manager reported solely to the mayor and not to the City Commission as a whole.
3 wolfpack 12 August 2007 @ 8:46 pm
I think many believe it already works that way by the way they only blame Stebbins for Lawton’s actions/inactions.
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