a first 100 days v.1

-343 words, a 1minute and 15 second read

I, of course, understand that ‘A First 100 Days’ is not a thing candidates for council do. That’s not how this works (…usually…). I’ve said before that the #1 job of councilors in our city manager led system is to be a conduit from citizen to city manager. However, I also believe that our council has become nearly entirely reactive (and I mean that as opposed to proactive). Council is pretty good at addressing things that are brought to them (maybe not quick, but pretty good). And we always seem to have a budget that balances and functions just fine…but I think we can do more. here’s the theory:

• What is the last policy you can remember that originated with City staff or Council? Seriously, give it some thought (and if you’ve got one, shoot me an email…I’m drawing a blank).

• Proactivity begets more proactivity…I promise. The more we collectively work to actually get good things done, the easier it will be to do so going forward. We need the practice.

• I have some super simple ideas for improvement. If elected, I will work to implement them as quickly as I can (and yes, you’ll hear all about them shortly…that’s why this ‘A First 100 Days’ is volume 1. More to come).

• But more importantly, your ideas! Our process, as described above, SHOULD involve everyone, with your councilors working on YOUR behalf to implement things that make YOUR City a better place to be. Our most underutilized resource is you…and your friends and neighbors. I intend to listen and get as many folks involved in the process as possible.

So…how do we start?

In the upcoming weeks, be on the lookout here for some of my thoughts on this subject.
Starting now, I’d love to hear yours.
I believe that we can walk (manage a city reactively) and chew gum (proactively make changes to make it more awesome here) at the same time.

(click the button below to send along any thoughts, or the other one to subscribe for the next installment shortly)