The “it’s
your turn” model
Years
ago, many of these jobs were filled by retirees, who have great experience or
business owners who can hire someone else to manage their business for
them. Most have the time and money to
basically donate they time and effort to the job. In rural counties it, farmers
got to know each other and would goad the smartest farmers to run for the
county commission. They wanted a good businessman to keep the county from being
cheated by price gouging vendors.
I lived
in Salina Kansas, a city of 40,000 for 8 years. We had 40 manufacturing
companies and many leading families and used the “it’s you turn” model. They owned grain companies, trucking
companies, manufacturing companies and we had farmers. Salina is a “blue collar” town.
I lived
in St. Louis, a metro area of 2.5 million from 1952 to 1975. Our leading
families also used the “it’s your turn” model. We had the Danforths from
Ralston Purina, the Bushes from Anheuser Bush, Pet Milk, McDonnell Douglas,
Monsanto, Bussmann Fuse, Mallinckrodt and Olin Chemical, Auto Manufacturing and
hundreds of others. It was clear that candidates for elective office were
vetted by the 20 “leading families” who were involved in every decision. St
Louis is a “blue collar” town.
Atlanta
Challenges
I’ve
lived in Atlanta since 1983 and haven’t noticed the same political stability I
witnessed in St. Louis or Salina. Atlanta had Coke, Delta, Home Depot and UPS
and lots of Banks and Insurance Companies plus hundreds of other companies and
did have dozens of electronics manufacturing companies that have since moved
elsewhere. Black politics ruled the City of Atlanta and the rest of the Metro
was white and rural. There were community leaders, but politicians didn’t come
from the easy to identify “leading families’ like they did in St. Louis and
Salina. They came from political
enclaves scattered throughout the Metro and the State. Atlanta is a “white collar” town.
Job
Complexity
These elected
jobs actually require full-time effort to do them well. Legislation requires lots of homework and most
of our elected officials have other jobs.
This model isn’t working here to the benefit of the voters. We get sloppy Bills, Laws and Ordinances. The
basic infrastructure responsibilities of our cities, counties and state are
routinely ignored. Property assessment is always suspect and voters are
continually raising hell about being cut out of the process.
At this
point we have federal mandates and bribes, common core, UN Agenda 21
implementation and government entities ignoring the voters. The Municipal
Association has driven up pay rates for all government jobs and Planning &
Engineering companies along with contractors are overcharging for everything.
Elected officials are failing.
Consider
other Options
If
campaign contributions were limited to voters only and special interests were
barred from making campaign contributions and voters could only contribute to
those who would appear on their ballots, the cost of running for office would
settle down to $5,000 for a website and yard signs. The time commitment would
be excruciating, so candidates would need to have saved up enough to live on
for a year. Those who have already studied the issues and processes and were
already known by their voters would have the advantage. Candidate websites
should include their positions on all issues and a full resume.
If we
paid these jobs $60,000 a year, we might have new grads from law school running
for elective office. They would bring energy, idealism and principles needed to
fix the processes, but not enough business experience. They could be joined by candidates
with actual business experience. Every Legislator on the Agriculture should
know farming and distribution.
Candidates
should be ready to do a thorough job researching each Bill. They should also
research current Law to find laws that need to be repealed.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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