After the election it is time to lead

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2) On April 4, Taylor County voters came out in force. While the headline race was the State Supreme Court, of equal, and for many, greater importance were the races for local municipal office at the town, village and city level.

The government that has the greatest impact on people’s lives occurs at the local level.

It is the members of local town and village boards, commissions and councils who have the often-thankless job of making decisions on which roads will get priority in road budgets that are never enough to get everything done. They are the ones who must balance the wants of relative newcomers seeking additional amenities and the needs of those who have farmed the land in the community for generations. These men and women take the brunt of the criticism when the assessors raise property values, and tax burden, and who sometimes are forced to say no to requests they don’t feel are in the community’s best interest.

There is a tendency among local boards for people to get elected and then stay there with tenures measuring decades. Then there are years, such as this one, where a number of local races saw competition with challengers succeeding in unseating some long-time local board members.

The reasons people had for seeking office are varied, ranging from a desire to take the community in a new direction as part of a generational change to issues that are in some cases intensely personal. Regardless of the particular reasons, the voters have spoken and made their voices heard.

To those newly elected or reelected by their neighbors to lead their communities, it is time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

It is easy to be the person on the outside criticizing the status quo and saying a change is needed. It is much more challenging to make that change happen and to work through the consequences, good or bad, of decisions made.

Being an elected official can be a tough job. You will be called upon to make decisions that impact people you may have known for years. You have an obligation to all the voters to make the best choices possible for the greater good of the community.

Good leaders rise to the challenge and work to make the best choices based on the information they have. Elected officials are bound to ruffle feathers, they wouldn’t be doing their jobs if everyone agreed with them all the time. In this they need to be able to handle the same sorts of criticism and commentary from residents that they themselves may have made before taking office.

With the dust settled from the election, it is time to lead.