About the City
By
Councilman Kingery

Filing time is here for elections coming up in November!  Important to you is the fact that we have two City Council and the Mayor positions coming up for election.  I hope you will consider running for one of these postions or will encourage someone else to run for these positions.  Choice at election time is a good thing!
Here are some of my opinions concerning these positions:
The mayor has the responsibility to run the regular and special Council meetings, so you need to have skills or be willing to develop skills in running meetings in an orderly manner.  The mayor often represents the City in the public outside of meetings.  Is this something you would enjoy or are willing to do?  The mayor signs many City documents so you would need to have time available to stop by the City office and do this.  The mayor will likely receive many phone calls from community members concerning problems within the City.  These need to be referred to the appropriate person, usually the City Administrator.  Are you willing to do this?
The mayor has one vote, the same as each City Council person in making important decisions, no more, no less!  If you have other questions about the mayor position feel free to contact Mayor Jones.  I believe he would be happy to try to answer them for you.  (You are welcome Bruce!)
City Council members and the Mayor have lots of reading to do twice each month before City Council meetings.  You will likely need 2-3 hours each time to read through the information being covered at each meeting.  You will likely get several e-mails to read each day from the City.  If you aren't willing to do this you will not be as well prepared as you should be.
City Council members and the Mayor will have several extra meetings and work sessions each year besides the two regular Council meetings each month.  Yes, you will spend lots of your time in doing City business!
City Council members and the Mayor serve on various committees and groups as part of their duties.  Are you willing to do this?
City Council members and the Mayor are encouraged to attend various conventions and meetings throughout the year.  Are you willing to do your fair share to become informed and share information about important issues?
City Council members also receive phone calls and e-mails from the public and they may contact you in person about their concerns.  Are you willing to make sure they have the opportunity to be heard by sharing their concerns with the City Administrator, other Council members and/or encourage them to speak out at Council meeting?   You do not have to agree with them but you have a responsibility to allow them to be heard.
As a City Council  member or Mayor you will be part of a decision making group. Are you willing to listen to all sides of an issue before making final decisions?  You will not be able to help make good decisions if your mind is fixed before you have considered all the information available.  Are you willing to voice your disagreements in a courteous way with other Council members when you believe your are correct and they are wrong?  Are you willing to support the group decision when you are out voted by the group?
The City Council will likely make mistakes while you are in office!  Are you willing to accept that responsibility when you do and be willing to work towards correcting mistakes as soon as possible?
Do you want power?  If yes, this is probably not for you!
Can you accept power and use it prudently?  If yes, that is good!
Do you want to run the city?  If yes, this probably is not for you!
Do you want the best qualified people to run the City?  If yes, that is a wise choice!
Are you ok that you will be one vote out of five?  That is the reality!  These are not power positions.  They are team positions.  That is why there are five votes, not one.
All of the previous information might make it sound like a lot of work and not much benefit!  It will be a lot of work, but here are some of the benefits:
You will learn, learn, learn!  The City will train you.  You will find that there are good reasons why the City does what it does!  You will be better informed than most other community members.  You will be in a position of having influence that you would not likely have otherwise.  You will be "in the know" about a lot of things most people don't learn about until much later.  You will meet many interesting and important people as a City Council member or the Mayor.  You will likely get to shake hands with the Wyoming Governor and some of the State  Senators and Representatives every year.  You will meet many Mayors and City Council members from other towns and cities around the state.
To me the benefits out number the difficult aspects many times over, and one of the most important benefits will be the knowledge and satisfaction that you are doing something to make the community of Douglas a better place for all of us.  So go to the City Hall and sign up now or get that person you believe would be good to sign up now!