Cities are formed when communities legally agree to pool their resources to provide certain public goods and services. At a minimum, these goods and services generally include police and fire protection, utilities and sanitation services, public schools, hospitals, infrastructure improvements like roads, bridges, drainage and flood control, parks, libraries, animal control and much more. These services, I feel, are essential to the success of a city and should be top priority for all elected officials in the city.
All city officials should view their elected position as an act of public service. As such, each one is responsible for the health and well-being of the community. Chief among these responsibilities is to continually deliver (and even improve) essential city services at a high level of quality.
This improvement process entails everything from allocating essential funding to creatively maximizing the impact of public expenditures through the efficient use of technology and management. In short, aldermen spend the citizen’s money on their behalf and should make sure they continually stretch it to achieve the best deal possible. In so doing, city services can be improved without levying additional burdens on the community.
