The Great Political Debate

[Jim O'Bryan]

This past week, between chickens and state elections the "great debate" popped up yet again.

Do We Elect Officials To Represent Us? OR, Do We Elect Officials Because We Trust Them?

Do they work for us? Really?

Or Do they represent themselves most of the time, and we pick them because we agree
with them and trust them?

Personally I do not believe Elected Officials don't "work for us" that's impossible.
But city employees do.

Any thoughts?

.

[Grace O'Malley]

I think on the national level the question is viable. On the local level, however, such as city mayor and council, the idea of a trustee is preposterous. There is no issue that is so complicated or far reaching that it would need someone vastly more knowledgeable or smarter to "make decisions for us."

We should be able to rely on our local elected officials to represent us, and they should be held accountable for that. Anything else and they quickly presume their own self-importance.

[Bill Call]

I think on the national level the question is viable. On the local level, however, such as city mayor and council, the idea of a trustee is preposterous. There is no issue that is so complicated or far reaching that it would need someone vastly more knowledgeable or smarter to "make decisions for us."

We should be able to rely on our local elected officials to represent us, and they should be held accountable for that. Anything else and they quickly presume their own self-importance.

A great Republican sentiment!

[Will Brown]

Some countries govern by initiative, where the citizens vote on every proposal. It can work, but I don't think it can work here, where voter turnout is often less than 40 percent. If the citizenry is to vote on every issue, why do we need a city council? We could fire them all and save some money, but if we did that we would be giving the reins to a population that is largely ignorant and too busy to even read the campaign literature for and against an issue.

So we have a representative form of government, where we vote for legislators and hope for the best. Frankly, I don't think it works very well, but government by citizen initiative would work even worse.

The idea that city employees work for us is ridiculous. They work for their boss, and ultimately for the head of the administration. If his sergeant tells a patrolman to block traffic on a road. and some fat citizen waddles up and tells him to let traffic through, who do you think he will obey? If city services are inadequate, we don't fire the workers; we fire the mayor.

I think we are very fortunate that city employees are friendly and helpful, but I don't presume to think that they work for me.