We need to make government better

This summer I have taken some time out to sit back and continue to make observations about our government. Government only wins elections when the representatives are in tune with their constituents.

It is often times said that local government is better because it is closer to the people. Listening and governing go hand in hand. Good democratic government listens to the people.

I have now observed or been at a number of public hearings, a hearing where the council is supposed to listen to the people.

In these hearings, the Chairman, Mayor Blair and Scott Simonitch were so enamored with thier power to make the decision they wanted to make that they forgot to listen to the people.

It was interesting how these men gave lip service to the public but they were not listening. The peninsula road project was later voted down.

In the variance request for the deck in question, there was not one note of opposition by adjoining landowners or others. Who is in a better position to oppose this deck? The adjoining landowners who see it everyday for years or a bureaucrat making arbitrary decisions just to enforce the code?

There were mistakes made in this project and it would seem that government needs to listen alot better. I for one believe that all government can be made better and we need to work towards this conclusion.

May I boldly suggest that the government is of the people and for the people and when a Mayor and Chairman of a Board do not listen it is they who have erred. It is important that all of this administration needs to listen and respond to the people instead of arbitrarily going down a path of destruction of the community.