Elected Officials-Listen and be Truthful

[oldetowne]

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[tooold]

Posting will follow, shortly, sorry.

[tooold]

Points to Ponder

Due to the volatility and emotional involvement of taxpayer presentations I think this is appropriate to discuss.

One of the prerequisites of holding public office is to serve to the best of one’s ability. There is no remuneration but long hours and due diligence come with the territory. Expectations are high that the current officials will make the tough decisions in the best manner possible; moving on the majority’s needs, but listening to the minority, as all are impacted in one fashion or another.

There are a few responsibilities that need to be brought along. One is the ability to listen to the taxpayers, regardless of being in agreement or not. We have often seen taxpayer presentations at the podium that cross over the limits of responsible behavior bordering on inappropriate behavior. To this point the elected officials have had the “tough skin” to be able to weather this, in appropriate and dignified ways.

Another obligation is to be truthful. Exaggerating twisting or embellishing any fact or situation tends to undermine the credibility of the position and any of these actions have the potential to escalate the conditions. Trust of the elected officials is paramount to success.

The third need is for the elected representative to non-personalize these issues. Many subjects are highly charged and motivate those elected to respond appropriately, however, it is up to these officials to separate the issue from the person. As taxpayers, we often get taken away in emotional responses. We look to our officials to balance these reactions, as they are the elected authorities of the process.

Nothing special or specific…any comments?

[oldetowne]

I think your points are good ones and the message is certainly valid.

The flip side is that these people are just "regular people", more or less like you and me, with lives, issues, families, jobs, financial worries, dreams and goals that have to be juggled. Serving on Council, the Board or any other commission is partly motivated by an altruistic desire to serve one's community as well as personal ego and gratification. The ratio obviously varies from person to person. They aren't getting paid and are usually devoting more time to their service than meets the eye.

If the response from the public is personal attacks, public villification, abuse, shunning, ridicule and emotional reactions, it's easy to see why these otherwise ordinary citizens may react badly and want to throw in the towel.

Which is all a long way of saying that being mature and reasonable is a two way street, especially on the local level where you are very likely to run into these people picking up pizza, getting gas, eating breakfast, going to church, raking leaves, watching kids' sports, etc. Losing that ability to interact with one's elected or appointed officials in our town is yet another step along the road to making Wethersfield a place that is different from the one we all chose to live in.

[Aintnofool]

These are all good points. Our elected and appointed officials must be courteous and civil to our residents and I would hope that the reverse is true as well. I've seen too often lately, our volunteers being raked over the coals by some residents. The discouse in government today can be nasty but if you look back even 40-50 years ago, the slander that passed for discussion was pretty bad. Back in Revoluntionary/Civil War days, politicians routinely called into question the others treasonous intentions for the most minor of disagreements. So, in view of that, things are pretty tame now!

[oldetowne]

Hey, at least in the Revolutionary War times you could challenge someone to a duel and either shoot them or cut off their body parts. Now all you can do is call in to local access TV and whine or put letters in Wethersfield Life.