Leadership and Legacy

Local politics is an example of both the best and worse in what John Gardner called the “American Experiment”.  Unlike national and state politics that are largely dysfunctional because of partisan positioning and dogma, local elected officials usually focus more on doing the people’s business.  Unfortunately this is not always the case. Although not partisan in nature, local politics are not exempt from political attack and motivation.  This is what I see as part of the worse example.

In spite of what looks like will be a particularly nasty campaign for reelection, I intend on focusing what I see as the best.  I believe that ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS should focus on building better communities and helping foster better quality of life for all of our citizens.  I believe in empowering citizens to take a more active role in their own governance and build on the concept of “We the People”.  These are constants in my system of values and in spite of what I may personally think of an issue, I was elected to represent the people, not my own motives nor those of special interest.

As I have stated many times before, Leadership should focus not on those who hold public office but on those people they serve. Although leaders need to protect the public interest, leadership is not attacking others, nor is it motivated by political attacks or interest.  This is why many people in our nation are equally upset with both political parties and all of congress.  Leadership motivates and empowers others to act and define a vision for the future they wish to realize. Leaders then work to empower those citizens and to help them build the capacity to make that vision become a reality. Leadership is in short awakening the best in people and their community.

Leaders work to engage people and their energies rather than give them sound bite answers and quick fix solutions to today’s issues.  A leader inspires and builds up those around him (or her) to help them become leaders in their own right.  A leader leads by example and understands that their own actions speak louder than any words they might say.  I hope that as Mayor I have always proven to be a leader.

Two things a leader must strive to accomplish. Make positive things happen that might not otherwise occur and to work to prevent negative things from occurring that ordinarily may occur.  An example of this is my work to mitigate the threat of flooding from the White River and my work to build capacity in our community’s ability to respond to a disaster.  A leader might not always be successful and may often have to fight a steep uphill battle, but a leader is not interested in what might be easy, but what is right.

I believe in our community and will always work to make our community stronger.  I believe that the community of Pacific is a living entity in which citizens, business and government all interact with each other to bring about change and progress.  I know the power of one person working to make positive change, inspiring others to join with them and mobilize to accomplish common goals in a sense of “We” and Community. Our community is capable of many things when allowed to unite.  My job as Mayor is to work to empower others and bring those parts of our community together.  It is to be a good servant of the people and a steward of our community. My greatest honor is to serve our citizens and inspire other citizens to be leaders themselves.  That would be a great legacy for me to leave for our future generations.

An Open letter to Pacific City Council Members on the need for Emergency Management Training

 

I feel it is important to address some comments made at the City Council Meeting on March 28^th.  These comments concerned the need for elected leaders, such as myself to take emergency management training.  These comments ranged from “This degree and type of training is beyond the requirements for the office of Mayor” to “I think we need to draw a line in the sand and decide when enough is enough. I think our city is safe enough”.  Not only do I adamantly disagree with these comments, I wish to point out that maybe the problem is not me taking too much emergency management training, but you not taking enough of it.

The National Incident Management System requirements call for anyone who might be involved in the operations or management of a disaster to meet minimum levels of training.  Now you may or may not have met these minimum levels, however could you still pass the entry level ICS 100 test?  And this standard is just the minimum requirement.  Just taking an online class and then now following it up with additional training or

As Naomi Zack, Ethics Professor at the University of Oregon writes in her book Ethics for Disaster “All residents and Governmental Officials should be prepared for probable disasters in their localities, and be prepared to respond to and recover from them.”  She goes on to state “Observers and Victims of disasters should hold those who are officially charged with responding to natural and artificial disasters, morally and legally responsible for their malice, negligence or failures in leadership.”  Does the failure of an elected official to seek out training in order to protect the interest of those people they have sworn an oath to serve constitute negligence?  I will leave that for you to decide, however I do see it as a failure of leadership.

I understand this is a political season.  I understand that parties who only wish to see me replaced as Mayor will use any excuse to try and bring me down.  I understand politics and expect this.  However I believe the citizens of this city deserve more from you than political games.  I have stated many times my how my travel for training is paid for, pointed out that it is a revenue neutral issue for local tax payers and even whole heartedly support any investigation into the Mayor’s travel fund, the value of my training or if those who contributed to the mayor’s travel fund gained any benefit from making a donation.  I was the one who first contacted our insurance company asking for that investigation and audit just to clear the air and remove any doubt from our citizens. I am proud of what I have accomplished in the past, I am proud of what I am doing now and I am proud of what I will continue to do in the future.  That is because I put more than my own self interest into serving our citizens.

As for the claims that I am taking these classes for my own benefit and not for the benefit of our citizens, I ask you this.  Do we not encourage our own employees to take continuing education?  Do we not all believe in what General George Washington stated that “All Great Leaders must continue to be Life Long Learners”?  Do I gain a benefit for taking these classes? Yes, but that gain is more than matched by the benefit given back to our community.  What I learn in training classes has been applied to our community. It is applied back indirectly through continued refinements of our emergency planning and it is applied back directly in the training of our staff and citizens.  I should also point out that my taking this training is done at a personal sacrifice to me by loss of wages, separation from family time and hours of homework done to support the classes I take.

 I have heard comments made by some of you (City council Members) that they could not understand how my suiting up in a Level A Haz Mat Suit and participating in a simulated disaster applied to my job as Mayor.  I ask you if you understand the difficulties our responders face wearing such personal protective equipment?   Do you think it is important that we as policy leaders take into account those difficulties?  I have no problem justifying taking these classes or any other class I have taken.

Now I will continue to take classes as I see fit.  I take my duties to protect the interest of our citizens seriously and will not let you or anyone else divert me from that.  I will continue to provide training to our citizens and our staff.  I will continue to write the disaster exercises we conduct as part of our training and exercise program and provide them to our city at no cost.  I do this because I serve our community first, not political whims or a campaign for personal gain.  I close by repeating this question to you.  Is the problem that I take too much emergency management training, or that you do not take enough.  I believe that our citizens we serve know the answer to that question.  I have no concerns leaving it to them.