Tomorrow night, Whitewater will choose between four (or perhaps five) qualifying applicants for an appointment to an open council seat for Aldermanic District 1.
There are two quick points worth making.
First, there were five applicants, but only four written submissions received by the clearly-stated deadline. (The fifth application helpfully advised, in the would-be politician’s handwritten words, “I’m sorry I didn’t get this to you sooner, I was out of town on vacation.”) Oh, brother. Best to choose, truly, from among the four applicants who filed on time.
Second, about these candidates: what do you think matters most? Setting aside the minimum requirements of age, residency, etc., is it not what they believe – what they profess to do — that matters most?
It’s a loss to this city that publication of their candidacies on the Web and (even worse) in a local newspaper is simply a plain recitation of names, addresses, employers, past service, and membership in clubs and local organizations. (It says much about local newspaper coverage that reporting amounts to no more than listing the same information available on an application form, with not a single question about what an applicant’s ambitions might be.)
There’s some value to that plain list, but there’s more value still in asking what a would-be council member wants to do, what he or she would like to accomplish.
It’s the answer to that relevant and material question that matters most, and that should guide Council’s selection on Tuesday night.