It's All About Keeping Focus

To be entirely frank about this, I do not expect to win a seat on the Commission.  Although I believe I've spent much more time, and worked a lot harder, campaigning than has any of my opponents (Mac Kennedy has spent a good deal of time, and worked hard, too, but not as much as I have), I have the second fewest yard signs of any of us.  (I get distracted with the conversations, and I forget to ask people if I can put a sign in their yard.  Sometimes, it's they who make the request of me.)  And I'm not an incumbent.  And I haven't lived here as long as has one of us.  Although I also think I'm one of three of us who want the right thing for the Village.  But somehow, I don't think that's going to prevail.  I have a little collection of stories I tell myself as to why I'm not going to win a seat.  And they all sound pretty convincing to me.

But I might win a seat.  I did once before.  (You remember, that's how I got myself into the Baseball Hall of Fame.)  And if I do become a Commissioner again, my constituency is the Village, and everyone who lives here.  That includes people who moved in last week, people who didn't vote for me, people who dislike me tremendously, people who didn't and don't vote at all, and people who can't vote (because they're not citizens, or they never registered, or whatever).  I have to care about everything and everyone.  I have to try to represent and honor people who don't want the same thing, or who completely disagree with each other.

If this sounds like an impossible task, of course it's an impossible task.  That's why being an elected representative is often described as a "thankless job."  Whatever you do or don't do will meet with someone's disapproval.  In my limited experience in elected office, the disapproving people are not one bit reluctant to let you know how dissatisfied they are, and what a wrong-thinking loser you are for disappointing them.  They're not thinking about you, or about their neighbors who were not dissatisfied about whatever it was.  They're just thinking about themselves, and how dissatisfied they are, and how right and smart they are, and how wrong and stupid are other people.  Like you.  Of which they will remind you.  For years.

I haven't told this story, because...well, I don't know.  It seemed weirdly personal.  But it's sort of about all of us.  So I'll tell it to you now.  I got elected to the Commission at the end of 2013.  A new manager -- Heidi Siegel -- had been hired not long before that, by the preceding Commission.  I had nothing to say about hiring Heidi.  I was just there, in the audience, for the presentations and questioning of the three finalists.  In my comparatively uneducated opinion (I didn't know anything about all the applicants who were not the three finalists, and I did not know in detail about the three finalists), Heidi was not my first choice.  She was my second choice.  But hiring her was not my job.  I was prepared to be happy with anyone we hired.  And of course, at that time, I had no idea I would be a Commissioner several months or so later.  Sure enough, I liked Heidi.  She had her quirks, as we all do, and they were sometimes at issue, but overall, I liked her, I liked having her as our manager, and I liked working with her.  One day, Heidi was in a bit of a funk, because a lot of people were giving her a lot of trouble about cost and schedule over-runs regarding the log cabin renovation and the administration building construction, and she asked me if I thought it was time for her to resign.  None of the problem was Heidi's fault (except maybe she should have been more open about it, but I think she was just afraid of being hounded and criticized if she told the public in advance that things would cost more and take longer than promised), and I told her it was absolutely not time for her to resign.  I was very supportive of Heidi, and in most respects, she did a very good job, quirks and all.  But later, it came increasingly to my attention that one of our neighbors (no names, I think) was being hounded with alleged Code violations, because he criticized Heidi about something.  You remember there were "quirks," and I believed that the possibility that one of our neighbors could be hounded for criticizing Heidi was one of them.  As I became increasingly sure our neighbor was right, I addressed this with Heidi, who insisted this was fabricated.  Well, I became so sure that the neighbor was right, and was so frustrated with Heidi's responses to me, that I told her that now it seemed time for her to resign, which she did.  And I will reveal that the neighbor in question is a huge pain in my ass, as he's a pain in the asses of many of us.  But he's a constituent, and constituents come first.  (As an aside, I went to the neighbor to ask more about his side of this, so I could advocate for him.  He told me he didn't want my help, and he wanted to handle this himself.  I told him I'm a Commissioner, I'm Heidi's "boss," he should want my help, and he needs it.  He declined.  I told you he's a pain in the ass.  I confronted Heidi anyway.  It was my job.)

My slogan is "For the Best We Can Be."  If I had a second slogan, it would be "It's All About the Village."  That's the one and only focus.  It's not about power, or favoritism, certainly not about money (there isn't any), and it's not about the thrill, for those who derive one.  It's about how to make BP a happy, appealing, pleasing, safe, satisfying, (cheap?; not any more, I think) place for us all to live together.

Don't forget, you're getting three Commissioners after November 3.  It doesn't do good to decide you only like one or two of the candidates.  You're getting three anyway.  I've said this before, and I'll say it again: never mind the candidates; decide what kind of Village you want.  Then figure out which candidates will give you that Village.  That's your vote.  You're not voting for the people.  You're voting for the Village.  Focus!