I have been approached by some passed customers who have hinted that i should run for mayor of our town. Has any body ran for public office here? Is there a conflict of interest if I were to push for zoning changes to give the new home building a boost. The town in question is Aberdeen South Dakota
Any comments greatly appreciated Pro or Con
Blues_hound
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Replies
In a small town, everyone is going to know your biases from the start. Having a pro-growth policy and voting the same is not a prosecutable kind of conflict of interest. The people who disagree with you will be pissed and the people on your side will be happy you "see the light", but that is pretty normal for politics anywhere.
Voting on the zoning change for a region in which you held property, or to put in a road to your place, or accept a bid from your company or a closely affliated one would typically run afoul of the city charter and possible state laws as well. You would requese (sp?) yourself - not vote on that item. Same if a relative is involved or would directly benefit. In a small town that comes up a lot.
But voting may not even be an issue. Usually city concil votes and the mayor might be the tie-breaker vote, if anything. If so, then it is straightforward - run a pro-building campaign and if elected, act accordingly.
And, talking of zoning and politics, my two outside-of-the-box ideas are:
No new building permits for commercial buildings until the commercial occupany rate is up to, pick a number, 90%. I'd rather see someone remodel that brick-fronted bank building on Main Street (or demo and rebuild if seismic is too hard) before building a new strip mall 1/2 mile from city center. Let's keep our small towns personable (i.e. walkable). A boarded-up downtown is a sad sight.
You want more building - make it easy to do those remodels. Remodelling is jobs and wages too.
And (my favorite): no new business licenses until there is a theater, a bookstore and an ice cream shop within 3 blocks of each other. Again, let's make our cities livable again - give people a reason to come to town at night and let them park their car and have an evening-long date in town instead of driving to Wal-mart in the next county.
Too many politicians and too few real people in office. Go for it. Say what you think. If they elect you in spite of it, its their problem.
I ran for office once, and got an expensive education. I had no idea how personally people took political stuff.
I ended up losing the election by about 15%. The other guy had a more popular family name. And he was a democrat in a town where 3/4 of the population is democrat.
I'd suggest doing some research first. Ask other people who have held the office or run for it. Pick their brain and find out what they know about local politics.
Plan on spending money if you want to win. I think I spent $600 on materials and such in a town of 5,600. It also took quite a bit of time to make public appearances and such.
One other thing to consider - How many enemies are you willing to make? If you run against someone fairly popular, you might tick off a lot of their family and friends. That could lose you a lot of business for many years. People hold grudges for a long time.
One last thought - How much free time and privacy are you willing to give up? Every time you're seen in public (or private) people will think you're there solely so they can bitch about every little thing they don't like about the city, their roads, the way their water tastes, etc.
They'll call you at home or work starting at 6am until 10pm or after. Just whenever the nmood strikes them or they get pissed off about something.
.
As for the zoning changes and conflict of interest - I doubt that would be much of a problem. But you could always ask the city attorney if you're elected. That's what they're hired for.
Do bulldogs get flat noses from chasing parked cars?
Boss
I ran for office once, and got an expensive education. I had no idea how personally people took political stuff.
You must of ran for office before you came in here, not that anybody in here ever takes politics personally. :)
Doug
"You must of ran for office before you came in here, not that anybody in here ever takes politics personally. :)"
Yup, it was back before I was even on the internet. I'm not sure I'd tell you guys if I was running for anything now. (-:I've invented an automatic parachute - It opens on impact.
Definitely run for mayor. I've thought about county commissioner here, since the ones we have are so dense. Maybe it would make me dense too. There is probably a town attorney who would be responsible for advising you on conflict of interest things since you're also in business and maybe also own property in the town.
Today, the main question voters will have will be your view on gay marriage. LOL.
as soon as you win, the other side will be trying to dig up garabge on you, to find you crook. Remember Arnold in Ca. he was governor 24 hours and they started a recall. No matter how honest you are, you will be a crook, you will be under the glass. Go to your kid ball game, they will wonder why you not working.
If I were you, I'd run for the County Line ! !
David Thomas - your comments about the commercial occupancy rate ; . . . I think it was Paul Harvey's radio show the other day where he mentioned that, in Lee County, Florida, the school board had bought / rented two vacant K-Mart stores and refitted them as schools ! I thought that was great. You've got parking, you've got limited access to the building, you've almost certainly got convenience (in location).
I'd say they had to throw up lots of well-insulated partition walls and add lots of bathrooms, but what great use of an existing resource !
Greg.
"vacant K-Mart stores and refitted them as schools"
I like that too. They turned our old K-Mart into a Home Depot. Even that is preferable to having big empty buildings around - makes the whole town look bad.
Part of the problem in our town and in many Mid-west towns is that land is too cheap. Cheaper to buy an empty lot and build new than knock something down. In SF or NY at least all the private land gets utilized.
My other zoning idea is differential property tax rates. Charge more for un-used commercial space than for productive space. It would force landlords to find some tenant to fill the space. Let people start new businesses more easily.
Most commercial buildings look bad empty or full. But at least the full ones contribute payroll taxes, jobs, sales taxes, etc. Let's have the empty ones contribute as much.David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
I have never run for any kind of office but I would like to say one thing, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!! I live in a relatively small town in New York. Within the last few years our town has gone from nicely spaced housing to neighbors living ontop each other in some parts. It's rediculous. The taxes keep goin up and up and up....running for mayor you may be able to keep an eye on things but they can quickly take a turn for the worst. Friends may soon become enimies.......Good Luck
Boss had some good observations about the public life.
Jealousy, and pwer are lethal to some relationships. You need a thick skin and the firm knowledge that you are right.
The best political advice I ever heard was from Davy Crockett, who was a senator from tennessee before becoming a Texican martyr at the Alamo. He said something like this, " First, double check to be sure that you are right. Then, put it all on the line and ignore all them that are wrong"
As to the conflict of interest Q - here's how I understand it from my bit of public service,
You can serve the position as loing as you don't do something that directly benefits you financially.
For instance, I was chairperson of the Planning bpoard for a few years. If I brought a permit application before the board as a contractor, I had to recuse myself from voting on that particular item, because I stood to make money from building it.
If the HO brought in the same building permit and there was no agreement between him and myself that I would be the contractor, I could vote on it yea or nay.
Things that were broader and more philosophically based on the principles that you ran for office on would carry no demonstrable conflict of interest. But if there were a vote to decide whether to re-zone a block or two of buildings downtown and you owned one of those properties - maybe. for instance, if you had a sale pending upon the passage of re-zoning, tha twould constitute a conflict.
For the most part, I understand it to entail a direct fiduciary relationship that creates conflict.
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Piffin
The best political advice I ever heard was from Davy Crockett, who was.......
I knew you were old but man I didnt know that you were an aquaintance of Davy C. :)
I think the advice that Piffin has givin is very good.
As long as you do what is right and not make a profit from the things you do as mayor, even then some will accuse you of it, so be prepared for that.
Doug
I read his audio-biography. he was deefinitely a "My way" kind of guy.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin
I read .......
I fingered as much, now down here in the big state of TX Im learning a bit about him myself, "My Way" sounds about right.
Doug