COLUMN: Advice for office-seekers

You don’t have to have any skills, background or knowledge to be a public official. Heck, in places like Pendergrass you don’t even have to have a brain — just do what the mayor tells you to do and you can sleep during city council meetings.

But this week’s “Exhibit A” of clueless public officials comes from Maysville where councilwoman Rebecca McNeely apparently spent nearly $1,100 in taxpayer funds to go to a city training meeting, but apparently never attended the mandated training.

Maysville Mayor Jerry Baker confronted her at a council meeting last week about that, to which McNeely did what many public officials do when they get caught with a hand in the cookie jar — she whined.

Just a hint to public officials, don’t whine. You ran for the office you hold. You took an oath to uphold your government’s ethics and to serve the interest of your constituents above yourself.

If you mess up, admit it, apologize and move on. If you really mess up, resign and let someone more competent do the job.

But don’t whine as Ms. McNeely did. Instead of explaining what happened (maybe she did attend and they lost her paperwork), she began to complain that her colleagues didn’t read a letter she’d written explaining why she missed an earlier meeting; and that she wasn’t given some records she requested; and that her counterparts didn’t care what she had to say.

Well, when you miss 16 council meetings and whine at the ones you do attend, they probably don’t care what you have to say.

Despite that and a couple other infamous cases, Jackson County is pretty fortunate in the quality of its local elected officials. For all the public nonsense that happens in local government and that this newspaper reports on, the overall quality of local leaders is darn good compared to many other communities.

But let’s face it, not everyone should be a public official. Not everyone has the very unique skill set that it takes to be on a city council or a county commission or one of the many public authorities that now exist in our constellation of local governments.

What are those skills? A short list:

--Patience. Serving in government isn’t a technical skill, it’s a people skill. Emotions are often involved and people get angry. If you’re quick to temper or don’t suffer fools gladly, don’t run for public office.

--Background. If you have no background in the real world — that is in dealing with people or complex finances — don’t run for office. Just because you can balance your checkbook doesn’t mean you’re qualified to be a public official and oversee millions of dollars. And just because you’re a political junkie and watch CNN, FOX and MSNBC every day doesn’t make you fit to serve on a local city council or county government.

--Public service. If you want to run for office to promote yourself, or get inside info for your business, or some other personal agenda, don’t bother. Your only goal should be public service. If it’s not, the public will know very quickly and your public life will be miserable. This is especially true for those involved in development or real estate where there is the potential for conflicts-of-interest involving rezonings, or inside information, or infrastructure development. It’s a minefield, don’t do it.

--Common sense. You may be a genius, but if you lack common sense your time in office will be torture. This especially applies to business people who run for office; being in local government is not like running your own business. You can run your business in secret and make your own decisions, but everything you do in government has to be open and transparent and has to be done in unison with others. And unlike your own business, you aren’t your own boss on a city council or county commission — the people are your boss and you work for them, not the other way around. If that bothers you, don’t run for office.

--Courage. This is the most difficult of all traits necessary for public office. If you worry about keeping friends and maintaining your social agenda, don’t run for public office. There will be times in public service when difficult decisions have to be made — people fired, rezonings turned down, budgets cut. If you lack the fortitude to make those kind of very difficult decisions that often involve friends in small communities, then stay home. A weak, wishy-washy public official is a terrible sight to witness.

Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.