What I AM about, and what I will be as your mayor, is a humble, hard-working city employee who will always be honest with you, and who will always strive to set the best possible example, both on duty and off.
For example, I promise that you will see me going through the same City Hall security checkpoints that everyone else goes through, waiting patiently in line like everyone else, and cheerfully following the same rules that apply to everyone else. And while I’m doing it I will be pleasant and cheerful with the folks staffing the security checkpoint, and will even occasionally bring them some coffee or cocoa. Just because.
Occasionally. Budget permitting, of course.
My budget. Not the city’s budget.
Anyway, moving on – in my working career I was known as some who was excellent at building and managing high-achieving and successful teams. I take pride in that, and look forward to doing the same in city government. As mayor you will also see me looking to collaborate with, build up, and empower the management staff in city administration.
And actually, I can’t wait to start in on that. I just know that I’m going to get some funny looks when I put together a team of people who, hmm, how should I say this – a team of people who didn’t expect to find themselves on the same team, and tasked with a mission they didn’t expect to be part of.
I’ll let you read between the lines on that. But the upshot is that city department heads and other staff are, in general, going to enjoy working with me. Not always. Not every day. But most days. And in most ways – at least the important ways.
One more example of what I AM about is that I will not be making department heads sign a resignation letter that I will then keep in my desk.
Yes, I know the supervisors outlawed that. But you get the idea. If someone needs to be fired, I’ll fire them. I’m not afraid of that. But I won’t be relying on theatrical stunts, or hidden threats, to manage city staff. Instead I’ll employ weird and unusual stuff, like respect, clear expectations, and my 100% support – in both good times and bad.
That resignation letter business really galls me. If you couldn’t already tell …
I’ll also take this opportunity to pledge that I will scrupulously follow all of the campaign fundraising and other election-related laws that apply to me and my campaign. Both the letter and the spirit of those laws.
Lastly, the politician thing. In another post on this general topic, titled What I Am NOT About, I mentioned that I am not a politician. (If you didn’t read that you can see it here).
So, as far as that “I’m not a politician” thing goes – what I will be is an honest and straightforward leader. One who excels at listening and learning and consensus building and communicating.
But also someone who won’t disappear when action is needed, and the hard decisions need to be made, and the accountability needs to be taken. Someone who won’t avoid that whole inconvenient accountability thing by hiding behind a screen of 600 non-profit organizations.