Laserfiche WebLink
Ho over Ong ~ bars ~ Gav rn e er <br />The fallowing items are taken from the Colorado Municipal League, Handbook for Municipal <br />Elected officials, and is reprinted from the League of Kansas Municipalities' brochure, <br />"Suggestions for Successful Public Service" <br />Governing is clearly mare of an art than a science. There are n.o ultimate answers on how to <br />govern; different approaches are to be expected, and probably desired. However, there do seem <br />to be some fundamentals. The suggestions that fallow range from practical, common. sense <br />fundamentals to those mare philosophic and theoretical. These tips for successful and effective <br />public service are intended to assist mayors, council members, and board trustees, while most <br />suggestions relate to individual of~.cers others apply to the governing body as a whole. These <br />two applications, however, are interdependent r the capacity of a governing body to govern <br />effectively is dependent on the collective capacities of at least a majority of its membership. <br />These suggestions are not in any priority order, and not all are universally accepted, All of them, <br />however, are worth consideration by anyone who would serve the public through an elective <br />local office. <br />1. Learn all you can about your city, its history, its operation, its frnancing. Do your <br />homework. Know your city ordinances. Dust off your comprehensive pion. <br />2. Devote sufi"ioient time to your office and to studying the present and future <br />problems of your community. <br />3, Don't bum yourself out on the little things but recognize that they are often <br />important to the public. Save some energy -and time ~ far the important matters. <br />4. .Don't act as a committee of one; governing a city requires team effort -practically <br />and legally. <br />5. Don't lit honest differences of opinion within the governing body degenerate into <br />personality conflicts, . <br />6. ~.enaember that you represent all the people of your community, not just <br />neighbors and friends. Be wary of personal experiences coloring your public <br />decisions. <br />7. Take your budget preparation job seriously, for it determines what your city does <br />or does not do for the coming year and will also influence what happens in future <br />years, <br />~. Establish policy statements. written policy statements let the public, and the city <br />staff, know where they stand. They help the governing body govern, and writing <br />them provides a process to develop canseu.sus, <br />9. Make decisions on the basis of public policy, and be consistent. Treat similar <br />situations similarly, and avoid favoritism. <br />1 ~, Focus your attention on ways to prevent problems, rather than just trying to solve <br />there as they occur. Filling potholes is one approach to governing; developing <br />plans to prevent them is more important. <br />13 <br />