I have been in office public office now a total of about 3.5 years.  I have spent much of this time trying to figure out how to effect change within a system that does not like change.  This system has become the accumulation of actions, rules, laws, and customs which, which over many decades, have become unwieldy, as the elected and staff try to be all things for everyone.  Simplicity is a foreign concept in government.  And so is prioritizing and performing full life cycle costs.

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The fact that government thinks it has a bottomless source of funds taints most decisions.  That government is a monopoly also taints most decisions.  The fact that government is not accountable in any practical sense taints most decisions.

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When I first decided to run for office, with help (I always welcome help), I settled on three important components of public office:

• Accountability – who will answer for failure?

• Responsibility – who will fix the problem?

• Transparency – letting the people who pay the bills know what is going on and include them in the analysis and decisions.

You can see how those three concepts proved to fit well into my observations of government.

The decision to run again was based on many citizen requests who passionately asked me to continue to press these very same concepts, building on what I was able to do during my first term.  They want someone experienced over a broad set of disciplines, who is willing to speak up and challenge the status quo to do better.  Significantly, I also received such requests from a variety of staff members who appreciate a straightforward and consistent approach to problem solving.

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