Telling Slips of the Tongue.

During the recent taping of the Candidates Forum we as candidates had the opportunity to share with the voters what plans and visions we have for the future of Connersville. Both on my website and during that taping, I have tried to share my hopes and aspirations for our community. I also spoke about what I would like to see accomplished in the next four years and how I planned to accomplish those goals.

The Director of CTV 3 offered each candidate a copy of the DVD or Tape of the forum prior to its showing on Sunday evening and I was anxious to see what the other candidates had to offer voters. I will leave it to the voters to make the final determination on May 8th as to who is the best choice to lead the city for another four (4) years.

What amazed me was that no one else took advantage of their time to offer the voters a plan to keep the city moving forward, or to offer a viable plan to make the city better.

I did hear the use of the word "I" a lot during one particular candidate’s presentation.

As Mayor, "I" cannot do or accomplish anything without a majority of City Council's blessing and approval. As Mayor, it is my job to build a positive consensus among City Council and bring at least a majority (4) of the Council members to support my ideas or the direction I would like to see a particular issue go.

"We" have accomplished much as an administration over the last 3 1/2 years. I say "we" because each time an issue was considered at Council, at least 4 others voting members must have agreed to achieve our goal.

It is the job of Mayor to bring ideas, goals, vision and leadership to the other elected officials they serve with and hopefully build understanding and to be of one accord when making decisions for the community. Even then sometimes the Council is split in their views and individual members seek alternative solutions to the same problem. That is where a Mayor’s leadership skills are at their most important.

One thing is for sure, there is no room for “I” when it comes to making the city a better place, dealing with people or attracting new jobs. The Mayor can neither take all the credit, nor take all the blame for what has or has not been accomplished. It must be “WE” or we are never going to accomplish much!

As corny as it may sound, "there is no "I" in TEAM". Someone has to want to be a team player in order to be a part of that team. Just as there can not be two coaches on a team, there couldn't be two Mayor over the last 3 1/2 years. You can't be Q.B. Payton Manning and Coach Tony Dungy at the same time. As in Grade School, Middle School and High Schools sports the coaches require their players to show up for practice and can't miss 20% of the "team practices" and then expect to be a starter. Some people just don't understand that!