By: Rebekah Stevens
Rebekah Stevens is Strategic Management Coordinator, Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.
For this month’s blog I write, not as part of the Strategic Management Team for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, not even as an employee of the city of Nashville in general, but as a citizen. I write as someone who invests in the future of my neighborhood, my city, my state and my county. For that reason, I want to see results. I want clear, concrete proof that the dollars that are spent, my tax dollars, are being put to good use.
Isn’t that what we all want, not as employees of local or state governments, not as managers or front-line staff, but as citizens of the city, state or country in which we live? By being a public servant, aren’t we investing in ourselves?
What information do we, as citizens, want to see from our government?
Do we want to know if the water that we drink is safe? Do we want to know that the air that we breathe is clean? Do we want to know how safe our streets, our blocks, and our neighborhoods are? Of course we do, and so do our neighbors.
However, we are not just citizens, we are public servants. We can use our unique perspective as we think about ways to engage the citizens, our neighbors and friends, in discussions about government performance. By being able to “see both sides of the coin” we have the advantage of not only producing results that are important to citizens, but also being able to share them with the public. Whether it is speaking at community meetings, posting performance information on the Internet or mailing information to residents, we should keep in mind the following questions:
- Is this information that I would want to
receive?
- Is this information going to inform my opinion
about government performance?
- How can I, as a citizen, use this information to make a difference?
These are the same questions that are asked by citizens across the country. As we communicate to the citizens of our community the successes and challenges of our city, I wonder how often we stop to recognize that we are also communicating these same results to ourselves.
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