On Politics and Politicians...(Starch)

Starch

....the more I thought about it, the more I had to do this, so please bear with me.

First of all, I feel that Dave Yates and his comrades were given a royal screw job by their city council. It sounds like those people out-and-out lied, and they should be taken to task for it.

That being said, I have to take exception to some of the comments made here about politicians and lawyers. If you think that it's an easy job to hold public office, then I triple-dog-dare you to go and get yourself elected!! I have had the honor of sitting on our village council for the past two years now, and let me tell you - it has been a HUGE learning experience. My town is small, population less than 1,000, but beleive me when I say that it is no easy task to serve in an elected position in ANY size town.

Looking in from the outside, it can appear to be a no-brainer, right? I have to admit that I held this view up until the time that I took office. I thought that the people running my town were the biggest bunch of idiots on the face of the earth. In fact, the only reason I ran for office was that I got upset by a decision the council made, and decided to get involved. Unfortunately, this is probably the main motivating factor for the majority of the people who run for public office.

I got sworn into office in January 2002, and it wasn't long before I was getting sworn AT by people who didn't understand how government works. Don't get me wrong - I probably would have agreed with them if I was looking at certain issues through their eyes. The thing is, though, that it is an entirely different picture when looked at from the inside. Once you start to grasp how some of the nuances of government work, particularly when it comes to finances, the picture changes drastically.

Government accounting and finance is absolutely nothing like personal or business finance. Every single penny has to be appropriated to a specific account, and certain revenues can ONLY be used for certain types of expenses. You may have thousands of dollars sitting in a street improvement account that, by Law, you can't spend on salary increases for your police department, even if they are deserved and needed. This is just one example of the frustrations you deal with on a daily basis. Now add to this the fact the the federal government has been steadily reducing the amount of funds that get distributed to local governments, and all of a sudden you can find yourself in a real financial strain. Cities and villages all over the country are finding themselves in very precarious financial positions, and the only remedy they have is to increase taxes - never a popular move, especially when a large portion of your (voting) population is elderly and living on a fixed income.

I am not saying that every town in financial trouble didn't put themselves in that position by not spending wisely - I'm sure that that is a common situation and can only be blamed on the political leaders. It is not out of the question, though, that a town in precarious financial shape got that way through no fault of its own.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that to group ALL politicians into one stereotypical description is the same as saying that all plumbers are butt-crack-baring idiots who know nothing about hydronics. Are there alot of bad, even criminal ones out there? Absolutely. There are also a whole lot of concsientious(sp?)professional people who truly want to make a difference. By the way, I get paid a whopping $3/day for my council position, so it sure ain't the money that made me do it.

I would encourage everyone out there to at least consider some sort of public office at some point in your life. The only way to fix the problem is to be part of the solution.

Sorry for the rant. I just had to get that off my chest. Back to heating now?

Starch

Steve Ebels

Ditto

I was in the same boat as you Starch. I have served 2 terms as township clerk and have run into all of the things you mentioned. I must be a little daft or something because I'm going for number 3 this fall.