There is a city council election coming up on April 4, 2023. I hope you have that date marked, are registered to vote, and you’re paying attention to those that are running. It’s a lot easier to register to vote than to figure out the changes on Facebook or to get a Paypal business account updated. If you didn’t hear the whine in that comment … I promise, it was there when I typed it. My old soul is really getting tired of technology. That was one of the first clues it was time to consider retirement. But I digress.
Back to the City Council election. We’ve gotten past the registering to vote, which can be done with a real walking, talking human, if you so choose! There I go whining again. Wing Wednesday, Whine Thursday (or whatever day today is). I need a little cheese with that whine.
Let’s get back to the actual topic.
City Council is made up of volunteers. They do not receive any payment, any insurance, just a lot of complaints from the citizens. Well, there are a lot of wonderful people they get to work with, too, but since I had been focusing on the whining ….
What do you look for when choosing who to vote for as one of our community leaders? I like to see who is active. Who attends the school and community events, who is active in their church. The people who are actually out there with the citizens. An active citizen is not one that just types their whines on Facebook, spouts their opinions, and talks. It’s the doers and the attendees and the helpers. And not those that are only out in the public during election time.
I love working with positive people, so I try to vote for those with a positive attitude. A positive attitude can solve a lot of problems, in my opinion.
If you are being chosen to be a leader in your community, I want someone who loves the community, loves the Panhandle. We can be realistic and see challenges (which a positive person considers an opportunity) and see where we can improve, but we love it nonetheless … in the drought and the rain.
The person who can sit and listen is good. So much better than the person who talks and talks because they are so in love with hearing their opinions and their own voice (and their whines … yes, that was sarcasm to myself … I don’t think I would vote for me).
And pay attention. We need people who think well. They don’t have to have a genius IQ, but they should know what tax supports the City, what taxes go to the county, how the school gets their funding … and not confuse the issues. A person running for City Council that is saying they will improve county roads is just wrong. Unless they plan to hike it up and do it themselves, with the permission from the county. See what I mean? City Council works with city issues, County Commissioners and other elected officials work with county issues, State officials work with state issues … and so on and so forth. All these entities work together, but they also have their boundaries. The City Council does not deal with most school issues, the school doesn’t deal with city issues. Pay attention to what the candidates are saying. Are they making noise or are they making sense?
We are lucky that we usually have choices on our city ballot. We have people who are concerned, who are willing to work for the community, and we should be proud of this fact. Now watch which one is best, in your opinion, and go vote for them!
And be sure to thank every single one that is on the ballot for being willing to serve our community in this capacity. It is serious business and we should be paying attention.
See you on the bricks!