Guest opinion: Lee County is at the crossroads
Business as usual just doesn’t cut it anymore when businesses are closing down; entire industries are evaporating; unemployment is rising to staggering levels; people are losing their homes; and everyday citizens are struggling to make ends meet. We simply cannot afford to muddle through, wait for things to get better, or hope for a bailout.
Where is our leadership? What is the plan — short-term, and long-term? What role for the citizens of our county (other than to bankroll runaway taxes?
Nowhere to be found, non-existent and none, respectively — as far as I can tell. How about you?
Lethargy, lack of resolve, stale thinking, disengagement from communities and citizens. Is that what you deserve, what you expect, from your elected county representative? It seems to me that there is a lot of explaining to do — yet, at least as far as District 1 goes, the silence is deafening.
The citizens of Lee County — individually and collectively, business owners, working men and women, and retirees alike — should demand more than a tired effort at the same old tired approach. In these times, and with decisions we make today sure to have considerable implications for the future of our families and our way of life, those conferred with the public trust as your elected representatives must, in my view, undertake certain key steps — and do so with the requisite sense of urgency, now;
n Critically, and candidly, assess the present
n Through innovation, efficiency, higher standards and vigilance, propel our government to do more, with less
n Forge new visions for the future, and an action plan for attaining them, which strike a sensible balance among the essential competing objectives of protecting our environment and safeguarding our quality of life; fostering conditions sensitive to the needs of existing businesses; and inducing new industries and businesses, and the JOBS they would provide, to enter our market.
n Open the door wide to citizen input. Clear and continuous Two-way communication between the citizenry and the representatives they elect to serve their interests — presently scarce at best — is essential. We must employ sincere and convenient means by which the citizens and communities of our county may have ongoing and systematic access to their elected representatives, forums where citizens’ voices may be heard and where ideas may be exchanged by and between and the general public and their representatives. Elected officials must engage the people they serve, and put their egos and special-interest agendas aside. Our representatives ought to show the public the respect of listening, and what’s more, understand that government performance can only be enhanced by tapping into the collective wisdom of the people. County Commissioners should pledge to conduct monthly town hall meetings on a rotating basis in communities throughout the county.
n Purposeful and decisive action Bureaucratic plodding must cease.
With the stakes so high, citizens are right to wonder: why are no public, televised debates on tap among those who aspire to represent them in countywide office? I hereby challenge my opponents to debate before the public. Will they join me in a cooperative effort, on behalf of the people and in the interest of an informed electorate, to make that happen before Election Day….?
— A.J. Boyd is a former Cape Coral city council member and a candidate for the Lee County Commission, District 1.