NOBODY ASKED ME, but… WAIT, I guess this time someone did!
This week, I was the guest of Minnehaha County Commissioner Dean Karsky at a gathering of community-minded citizens in Sioux Falls.
This is one of those early morning breakfast meeting groups that convenes weekly to talk about what is going on in local government. I knew a few of the people present personally, and some others I knew of by reputation, but I was happy to hear people talking about how government is “supposed” to work.
From what I could tell, the folks in this group were of different political persuasions and backgrounds. However, not once did the subject of national politics come up. While several were from Sioux Falls, there were also many others from elsewhere around Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties.
We heard a little bit on state level from farmers in the group about the inability here of being able to grow industrial hemp, the benefits of the crop, how it doesn’t have the intoxicating affects of marijuana, and how we may end up falling behind our neighbors in that respect.
But for the most part, the discussion revolved around Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County. Specifically, Home Rule and the “Triple Check” petition process for limiting the original Home Rule charter in Sioux Falls.
Joe Kirby, one of the authors of the Home Rule charter back in the 1990s and a supporter of some of the issues behind the petition, spoke to the “breakfast club” about bringing more unity to the city council. As it is now, under the charter, a mayor only needs a coalition of a few council members to ensure he gets his way.
Kirby said he believed that taking the mayor out of the room would bring back the need of having to form a consensus to get things done.
However, this was a digression from the original topic Kirby was supposed to address of having a Home Rule charter at the county level. What little talk there was about that dealt with a change in elected officials, combining office and saving money. No one talked about how we should “get right on that,” but, as was appropriate for breakfast, it did become food for thought.
This all brought to mind two things I have known for a long time: first, no matter how much attention politics gets at the national level, by far, the most important level of government is local – i.e. city, county and school.
This is where we should be looking at if we want to affect change.
And second, politics and political parties can give us guidelines to follow, but they should not be the focus of how to govern. All people can have good ideas, regardless of whether they have a “D” or an “R” after their names. The founders of the United States knew this, which is why they made the need for compromise essential to changing the Constitution.
The Wednesday morning breakfast group in Sioux Falls is a shining example of this philosophy. Instead of only looking at our differences when bodies try to govern, we need to first look at where we agree and build on that.
It would certainly save a lot of time and garner far better results.
