Deep Thoughts, Cheap Thoughts and Bonbons

The New Year has begun, and quite surprisingly the past year has gone by extremely fast. Unsurprisingly, rarely did anything surprise me during my first year as a Supervisor. Granted there are moments when one believes he/she is making the right and prudent decision, but I did learn that regardless of how one votes, there will always be consequences.

What is most popular in the public opinion could and often does influence and create pressure for city staff to revitalize their position on the issues of the day, and then they may or may not make an agenda item for that subject matter.

The public should recognize that a Board member only has four working days to investigate, research, and seek answers to their inquiries about any agenda item on which they are required to vote yea or nay.

More unreasonableness:
1) Previous minutes of meetings are four months behind. Additionally, there exists no capability for a citizen to search those records for a certain subject matter.
2) If a citizen wants to know how the Board voted, he/she must read the minutes of that particular meeting. All voting records should be posted on our website.

It is amazing to me that we have city employees go through the Chamber Leadership Class, interacting and learning about our city, and on the other hand, Board members are left on their own to discover. So, I have independently set up meetings with city department managers and their staff.

What cannot be realized is that the vast majority of city employees cares deeply for our community. Without a doubt, I am truly amazed when I meet and talk with individuals who work for Carson City, the hourly employee is a hard working individual.

It doesn't matter if you are Republican, Democrat, Green, Libertarian, a member of any other party or not aligned with any party at all. I am determined to fulfill my obligation to keep ALL citizens informed by being available, by responding to inquiries, by listening to citizens, and by taking responsibility for my actions and my vote. My anticipation while in office was to write a letter to registered voters in my Ward. So upon my pledge to keep voters informed, I began and did make it to persons with the last name starting with “H.” Then abruptly, yep, you guessed it, I was informed that our multi-million dollar budget only allocates $1,088.00 for each Supervisor per year.

How I vote on some issues:

• Water and sewer rate fee increases. Voted NO.
• Funding of $75,000 (which must be reimbursed after the event) for the purposed Nevada Sesquicentennial Fair to be held within Carson City at Fuji Park. Voted YES.
• Eagle Valley Golf Lease. Voted NO, because bidding for City leases must be open and fair to the general public, and it wasn’t.
• Hiring a Deputy City Manager. Voted NO.
• Purchasing the BRIC building Voted NO, because it was overprice, and funding coming from the Redevelopment Authority was inappropriate.

Changes we should consider or improve on:

• For the Nevada Day Parade, it would be nice if we had designated areas that prohibit tobacco and alcohol to promote a healthier and family friendly atmosphere.
• Obtain more funding for: a) street repair and maintenance b) snow removal
• Carson City needs to sponsor more “family” community events.

What is really disheartening is that for the entire year of 2013, I never once received a monthly, quarterly, semiannually or even annual communication of any type of update from the City Manager regarding the numerous issues facing our community. With the hiring of a new City Manager, my expectation is that many things will be changing, and hopefully Board members will be provided a better understanding of circumstances that our community faces and how each can help find solutions.

Three goals of the Board should be:
1. Strengthen Our Community,
2. Improve Government, and
3. Save Taxpayers Money.

Solving community problems requires open lines of communication. Since taking office, I have been invited to attend only two (2) meetings held within our City offices, and I am consistently at the office.

As a Supervisor elected by the citizens to serve the public interest, I realize that making decisions on behalf of the whole community can only be accomplished by listening to both sides.

To fully grasp the comprehensiveness of our fiscal year budget or capital improvement programs, if you can get citizenry to act as your support base in the community, then it makes explaining the tough budget decisions easier. Citizens will feel they are a part of the process and take ownership over it. I believe most would agree that effective communication and cooperation are the foundation and building blocks to any sustainable citizen participation process, but to do so both sides must have equal opportunity to have a voice.

It seems citizens may reject the notion that elected officials actively seek to get input on budget priorities from the citizens they represent. I really try to keep in touch with our community. Can I do better? Yes.

I rejected the notion that our public hearings are effective methods to allow citizen input. They simply aren’t. Unfortunately, I have no solution.

If we want a more effectively run government, citizen input must be followed by feedback from either staff and/or elected officials. Their participation must initiate a reaction or response showing that they were heard.

Effective participation is based on communication and cooperation of both citizens and government. This relationship hopefully will be cooperative rather than antagonistic. All participation should not involve objectiveness or neutrality, but rather sponsorship on behalf of the entire community, not the individual.

I welcome citizens who are looking to being a part of authentic participation, and when well-managed, citizen participation can be a tremendous asset. In some cases, elected officials tend to look for citizen participation only at re-election time; my goal is to change that image during my term.

My biggest concerns are identifying community needs, citizen desires, and community expectations regarding our budget and future projects. I can only achieve this by your input and opinion.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Jim Shirk
Carson City Board of Supervisor Ward 4
JShirk@carson.org
720.5761