If we don't start making different kinds of decisions, we will continue down the same path we've been heading and end up with a community that works for even fewer of us than the one we already have.
When I look back on my time reporting what was happening in the community – everything from decisions made around the school district board table, to non-profit fundraisers, to local kids’ sporting events, to structure fires and new business openings – it’s the time I spent reporting on council that sticks out to me as being the most frustrating.
You’re obviously never going to have a city council that makes all the same decisions you would. That’s just the nature of having seven different people and personalities around the table. But even the decisions they made that I agreed with took them far longer than I think they should have, and the ones I disagreed with were too often made in opposition to information that came forward during the discussions from experts on the topic or generally accepted best practices being used successfully in other communities.
Too often, as I watched and listened to the past two city councils, it seemed as though some of them had already made up their minds on the issue they were discussing before they were even presented with the information that they had asked for and paid people to research and provide, and certainly before they asked the public for their thoughts on the matter.
That’s not how you make good decisions. You make good decisions by bringing in the best information you can find on a subject – and as much of it as you can – and then discussing it with the people who are going to be impacted by whatever your decision ends up being and getting their views.
If we want to start doing things differently, we need to start by listening to each other, caring about each other, and deciding as a community what’s best for our community.
I'm dedicated to listening and bringing people together to work towards the common goal of creating a bright, vibrant and productive future for this city.