We Need You—To Run For City Council in Shawnee!
Hello friends, it has been a while since I’ve written a blog. This is not because I haven’t had anything to say, but blogging takes a considerable amount of time, and I wanted to give the Council some space to take action without my constant scrutiny to see what would happen. As a result, I am now actively seeking candidates to run for the Shawnee City Council (all wards, potentially).
I am offering my services to mentor and provide guidance/resources for the right candidates.
Here are my reasons for being very concerned about our current Council’s ability to effectively govern our wonderful community:
The Council insists on imposing their limited culture and beliefs on our entire community. Their extreme behaviors transcend political party affiliation and lead to dangerous precedents and outcomes.
The council does not rely on the professional analysis and research of our hard working staff members whose job it is to keep our city running. In addition, they actively undermine and degrade our staff to their faces. It is actually painful to listen to. Our staff have always done more with less but are currently drowning by a mass exodus (including 2 of 3 from the City Manager’s office) prompted by the poor treatment by our council members.
The council knows the “cost of everything but the value of nothing.” They have made it their mission to cut costs with little regard to the long term impact of these decisions on residents like you. We have a city of nearly 70k and it is expensive to provide basic services to our population (like filling potholes and maintaining parks). We are at risk of losing our AAA bond rating. This will result in higher costs for our city. Their decisions are not fiscally conservative, they are fiscally reckless.
TheCouncil has no interest in creating a vision for the future of Shawnee and are actively undermining the work the community put into the strategic vision and plan. A failure to plan is a plan for failure. This lack of effective planning and communication is also the reason we have so many community members who are shocked and upset by developments that are proposed near their homes.
Several Council members are unprepared for meetings, frequently refusing to read the packet and refusing to learn how to be better elected leaders. They have also withdrawn their membership from the National League of Cities, a professional organization relied upon by our staff for continuing education credits and that allows our elected officials to learn from the successes and failures of other cities.
Local government works best when it is stable and representative of our community. Our council does not represent our community. It is time to do more than vote!
We need viable candidates fast. The filing deadline is in June, but campaigns should be organizing now. I am happy to walk you through all elements of campaigning and being an effective member of the council. I am also not alone. Whatever your need is from a campaign perspective, our team has the expertise to see you though. Please reach out. We need you!