Senator Bill Bradley on Citizenship - Thursday and Friday of last week I attended the annual conference of the Florida City and County Management Association (FCCMA), the professional association for people who do this thing that I do for a living here in Florida. Along with the opportunity to share experiences with professional managers from around the state, the conference always features great guest speakers, and this year was no exception, with the opening keynote address delivered by former United States Senator, All-American, Olympic gold medal winner, New Your Knick, two-time NBA champion, and erstwhile presidential hopeful Bill Bradley.

Senator Bradley spoke on a number of subjects, including many of his experiences as an athlete, and he proved to be a great story teller. Beyond that, however, he talked about the concept of citizenship, and what it means to be a citizen. He struck a chord for me when he talked about how people suggest that government should be run like business, and our constituents treated like customers. He suggested that government has a much higher obligation to our citizens than as customers, something with which I have always agreed. That doesn't mean we can't apply business principles where they are appropriate, but our motivations and reasons to exist are quite different.

The Senator also talked about the role and responsibility of the citizen, and reminded us all that every time someone steps to the microphone at a commission meeting or calls us on the phone to complain, cajole, or even just downright agitate we should be grateful, as that person is exercising his or her citizenship, something that all too few people do. In fact, it is often the exercise of citizenship by a relatively small number that leads government at all levels sometimes to take actions based on that noisy few. Senator Bradley talked a great deal about how that effect in Washington makes both major political parties pay the most attention to those who might tend more to the extreme but who are the ones in the game, hence requiring that attention.

What does that mean for us here in Sarasota? If you've listened to the City Commission lately you've heard them discuss something called "Asset Based Community Development", which relies on people acting as citizens to affect change in their own community. You will be hearing more about that. We generally think of ourselves as a very active and engaged community, so here's a citizenship question for you; in our most recent city election, what percentage of the residents of the City of Sarasota stood up to cast a vote, something which many would agree is one of the most basic responsibilities of a Citizen? Write down your number somewhere - in a couple of days I'll post the answer.

ALSO! A big thank you to everyone who has participated in this experiment in communication and the right to address your government, the City Manager's Blog. My peers in the FCCMA last week picked it out for a special award for "Courage in Communication." Apparently this format is somewhat unique in our business, so thank you for being a part of it!