Heartland Visioning – Government

To continue our series of entries on the Hearland Visioning draft plan, here is my brief descripiton and take on the Government section.

First of all, I was very surprised to find that this section is only one short page. Maybe that is good thing, because the key to this Vision becoming a reality is the people in the community and private investment, not relying on the government to make it happen.  We do however need their support and some items in the Vision do & will fall in the public realm of government responsibilities.

The Vision for Governement is: Shawnee County will have streamlined, efficient governments that work with state and federal governments to create a better quality of life for all Shawnee County. I think the important words to note in this are efficient and streamlined. I don’t know if there are many people that would describe our local government with quite those words currently, but to move forward & grow, we do a an efficient & streamlined government.

Many of the strategies focus on having the local governments and government officials support Heartland Visioning and implement appropriate strategies.  A couple other important strategies to note are: Increase transparency in government. Expect effective, efficient, accountable government.  Maintain a website that includes each elected officials voting record.  & Increase opportunities for citizen input.

One issue that has come up in a lot of the discussions I have had with people is, does having a streamlined, efficient government mean we need to consolodate city/county government?  Maybe.  This was a very hot topic in the Task Force meeting, but consolodation was purposely left off knowing that it is a very controversial topic and the Task Force did not want that to become a reason for people to not support the Vision. With the right people and a few small changes, the form of government we have now may function just fine.  Maybe we need to have more cooperation between the two?  I don’t know the answer, but I think it is important that this does get addressed and addressed quickly in the implementation of the Vision.

One strategy that I think should be included in the Vision is that we need to regain people’s trust in our local government.  Trust came up a lot in the Visioning process and there is a page dedicated to Trust in the Vision, but I think a big part of this is trust in our government officials to guide the community in the right direction and promote growth and positive change.

Maybe the Vision for government needs to be a streamlined, efficient, accountable government.  What are your thoughts on changes or strategies that need to be added?

• gwendacloseAuthor: gwenda Name:
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• October 23rd, 2008
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• City Government, Vision
• heartland visioning draft