With municipal elections taking place across this state on Tuesday, it is important to keep in mind that the leaders elected not only set the direction of a community for the next four years, but it impact generations.
While I look forward to serving the next four years, and appreciate the confidence in the citizens of North Carrollton in allowing me to do so, municipal elections Tuesday across Mississippi will have consequences as all elections do. It’s not only to that city or town but across the state, because when local officials join together for a common cause it gets attention. Trust me, I’ve learned that over the years.
The Mississippi Municipal League's Annual Conference is scheduled every summer in June, however, on election years such as 2021, it will be held in July to allow new officials to participate. MML, made up of mayors, council members and aldermen statewide, is a powerful group, and there is an array of issues that the municipal league lobbies for in efforts to serve the communities back home. It is a known fact that cities and towns across Mississippi have a mayor and some five to seven councilmen or aldermen, and that makes for a strong organization.
Through the years there have been issues that MML has lobbied from infrastructure needs, taxation plans, and several local options.
Municipal elections are as local as it gets, and this level of government has a lot to do with fire services, law enforcement, street maintenance, water, and sewer operations. Most municipal officials agree that another key component of their jobs also includes animal control issues, community blight, and garbage collections. While it is a fact municipal government won't be dealing with Supreme Court appointments or handling foreign policy or issues of that nature, it does deal with the everyday services that involve all citizens. And there is always the unexpected local officials must address like tornadoes and flooding that requires acting fast and a networking with others.
Through my time in municipal government I have learned that the local level is where you can help people directly in your community and put forth an effort to work with others on different levels of government to help your community. That involves dealing with various governmental bodies, the MML, state, and federal officials to get the goals achieved to make a better future for the municipality in which you are elected to serve.
In doing this it is important to lead with humility in achieving a goal, it is important to put forward the best of who we are. President George H.W. Bush summed it up in his inaugural address in 1989, that it is a model for all leaders. I know I’ve looked upon it in my two decades in elective office.
"In our hearts we know what matters. We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town better than he found it. What do we want the men and women who work with us to say when we are no longer there? That we were more driven to succeed than anyone around us? Or that we stopped to ask if a sick child had gotten better, and stayed a moment there to trade a word of friendship?"
It’s important to lead with courage and have a servant’s heart with determination for the future, and working together makes a difference. The voting will be across Mississippi Tuesday in many cities and towns, a dedicated public servant t that works for others and with others will make a difference for your community and across this state.
Ken Strachan serves as the mayor of North Carrollton and is a member of the Mississippi Municipal League board of directors.
