Our Measurable is Not...Net Profit...but Quality of Life

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Video coverage of the Board of Chatham County (NC) Commissioners Meetings are available by using this link.

For continuing coverage of Randy Voller, Chair of the North Carolina State Democratic Party, is available by using this link.

Tuesday, 21 June 2011 11:29

CCDP Chair Voller, Public Comments to the Chatham County Board of Commissioners

June 20, 2011

Greetings. I come before you as a private citizen, a fellow elected official and the Chair of the Chatham County Democratic Party. I empathize with you and I honor your service our community. In fact, I believe we chose to do this because we all want to continue to enhance our community.

I do not believe we are at war politically. I believe that we can reconcile our differences in the pursuit of common goals which serve and better our community.

I believe we are in an evolutionary period for civil society that ultimately will reconcile how we as a species will sustain ourselves and the biosphere in the future.

The great question is how we will manage the endeavor and what our overarching philosophy will be.

We must be all willing to consider that some of our ideas work in the abstract, but not in practice. Our beliefs will become “means tested” and we will experience a shift in perspective.

I personally had such an apotheosis in 2003, when I actually came to believe that the Chicago Cubs would win a World Title in my life time. My perspective has been adjusted. I now realize as a Cubs fan that it is not just about the elixir of victory, but the shared journey of disappointment. The Cubs will never be the Yankees---which is “ok”.

I ask that we consider such a similar shift when we evaluate the meaning of our local government and its reason for being. When we throw out fancy consultant business terms like “streamlining”, “optics”, “core functions” and “synergy” we need to remember our metric for the business of local government. We are a non-profit. We should provide value to our citizens and the business community. Our measurable is not based on the pursuit of net profit, but rather on outcomes that are directly connected to our quality of life.

In the “Death of Common Sense” author Philip Howard has an excerpt from a 1937 report on administration given to President Roosevelt:

“Government is a human institution…It is human throughout; it rests not only on formal arrangements…but even more upon attitudes..It is certainly not a machine…What we want is not a streamlined, chromium trimmed government that looks well in the advertisement, but one that will actually deliver the goods in practice.”

People matter. The spirit matters. "In Deus Machine". The ghost in the machine.

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Our Measurable is Not...Net Profit...but Quality of Life
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
CCDP Chair Voller, Public Comments to the Chatham County Board of Commissioners June 20, 2011 Greetings. I come before you as a private citizen,...

Chatham County (NC) Democratic Party - Official Site

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