Constant vigilance!

I’m glad the Northfield News is keeping tabs on us new Council members in Keeping Their Campaign Promises? because I think we all said we wanted greater transparency, accountability and integrity in Northfield government.

Still, the new Council has met as a group only twice.  My goals for the Council are largely process goals – helping the Council make fair, consistent and sustainable decisions which use City resources wisely and I find it hard to imagine how the success of these goals can be measured so soon.

Not that we haven’t started on them.  Following up on our Council retreat of January 2, Rhonda Pownell, Jon Dennison and I are meeting in the coming week to flesh out a decision-making process for the Council which will help the Council seek public input consistently (and at an early enough point in the process where it can have an impact), ensure consistency with our long-range planning documents, allow us to measure our success, and explain our decisions to you, the public.

I hope you and the News will also be patient as we build our decision-making framework.  Rather than ask whether we are keeping our campaign promises in January – a question which begs for a yes or no answer – it would be more helpful if you stay engaged, keep giving us suggestions for the kind of input you’d like to have and the outcomes you’de like to see, and help us move towards effective government incrementally.