The Academy of Local Politics is closed for summer vacation.

The Pontificator has a date the last week of July to ride RAGBRAI, a 500 mile bicycle ride across Iowa. Much preparation is needed prior to the ride and decompression time will be needed after…

You can follow my RAGBRAI progress by reading TRIKEMAN.

If you are new to the Academy of Local Politics make sure you download the FREE ebook “Why Your City Council Makes Dumb Decisions and What You Can Do About It.”

If you are really serious about local politics Moving Mountains and Molehills Local Politics 101 is a must read!

See you for the Fall Semester!

Local Victory has done it again. Joe Garecht has written an excellent article “How to Find Cheap Political Campaign Supplies.”

If you plan on running for election this is an excellent common sense primer on purchasing supplies. It doesn’t give you all the answers … it points you to ask the right questions.

Moral outrage is the most powerful motivating force in politics.

Morton Blackwell

If you want a job done poorly turn it over to a committee. Performance the rule goes will be inversely proportionate to the committee size.

The University of Wisconsin Extension Local Government Center has started a new blog.

The very first post of this blog is a must read for anyone interested in local government. It is a glossary of local government financial terms.

There is no way I can make his glossary of local government financial terms exciting. It is just plain and simple must read material if you want to understand local government budgeting and finance.

Get it here.

Read it. Print it. Study it. Refer to it whenever you hear a financial term you don’t understand.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Red light cameras. Some hate them … others praise.

This report comes from Cedar Rapids, IA.

Cedar Rapids Police Chief Greg Graham reports that the enforcement cameras had snapped photos of 26 Cedar Rapids police cars speeding or running red lights as of last week.

No, these photos don’t immediately end up being tossed aside, the chief says.

Upon review, Graham reports:

Five of the potential violations were deemed not to be violations; officers were operating in “legitimate” fashion. For instance, they were tailing a speeder at the speeder’s speed.

However, in six other instances, officers were issued letters of discipline because they did not have their patrol car’s lights and sirens operating as they should have when they were speeding to a call. Fifteen potential violations are still under review.

Cedar Rapids officers, Graham said, will get tickets in instances in which they should not have been speeding or running red lights. “Every one of the officers has been told that by me,” the chief said.

Other law enforcement agencies aren’t getting off the hook either.

In Marion, Police Chief Harry Daugherty reports that the Cedar Rapids Police Department has forwarded seven possible camera violations by Marion police officers to him for review.

In four of the seven, officers had a reason to be hustling. In three, the Marion officers have been issued citations, which they must pay, Daugherty says.

Typically, he says, Marion officers are in Cedar Rapids delivering arrested suspects to the Linn County Jail in downtown Cedar Rapids. Often the officers need to hurry back to Marion for calls. In the three instances in which officers are getting tickets, “nothing big was going on,” Daugherty said.

A number of years ago I witnessed a police car run a red light. I followed it back to the station and asked the officer if he was going to write himself a ticket. He denied running the light. I wish I would have had a picture of it.

Smile!

Huh?

A city councilor in Massachusetts thinks he’s come up with a way to stop people looking at pornography on public library computers _ name them and shame them.

Quincy Councilor Daniel Raymondi has asked Mayor Thomas Koch to make public a list of people who have viewed pornography on library computers within the past year. The council unanimously approved a resolution on the idea last week.

Library director Ann McLaughlin tells The Patriot Ledger that using library computers to access porn is against policy, and violators are given two warnings before they are banned. She says she’s not sure publicly naming violators would work.

A spokesman for the mayor says the city’s legal department is reviewing Raymondi’s request.

I don’t think someone who looks at porn in a library can be shamed.

But … but …

Why aren’t there filters on the library computers that block porn sites?

and…

Why do they get  TWO  warnings?

Geez.

Dollarish.Com asked the poll question … Do you care about your local neighborhood politics? This was not a scientific poll so the results would have a very large + or -. The results were not a surprise to me. Disappointing but not a surprise.

Only 23% said they cared a lot.

A little was 62%.

Not at all came in at 15%.

A nation of Sheeple?

Looks like it at times.

Last week I wrote about the City of Maywood, CA turning over the operation of its city to the neighboring city of Bell, CA.

Now this is in from Bell.

BELL, Calif. (KABC) – They make almost a $100,000 per year for their part-time jobs. They are members of the Bell City Council. The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office wants to know how they justify those large salaries.

An investigation is now under way into the amount of money paid to city council members in the small community of Bell. It’s far above the amount allowed by state law.

L.A. County District Attorney Steve Cooley is investigating how five council members can be paid $8,000 a month for meeting just two days a month. The D.A.’s investigation is looking at the $100,000 each of the council members, including the mayor, are paid when the state law says it should only be a maximum of $400 a month.

I wonder how the residents of Maywood feel now?

Pick battles big enough to mater, small enough to win.

Jonathon Kozel

Maywood, CA has problems.

No, I mean they really have problems…

Maywood, a small working-class community south of downtown Los Angeles, plans to lay off all its employees, disband its Police Department and turn over its entire municipal operations to a neighbor — an action that appears to be without precedent among California cities.

Maywood’s $10.1-million general fund budget has a deficit of at least $450,000, officials said. Beyond that, the city has been unable to obtain insurance because of a history of lawsuits, many involving its Police Department, which also patrols Cudahy. Operating without insurance would make even routine government services highly risky.

Under the city’s plan, the Sheriff’s Department will take over patrols. The neighboring city of Bell will take over other municipal services, including staffing Maywood’s City Hall, saving the city an estimated $164,375 a year, officials said. The changes would take effect July 1.

Contracting with Bell is the most cost-effective way to ensure that residents still get basic public services, Councilman Felipe Aguirre said. “Our streets will be cleaned, our potholes will be filled, this is not affecting any of that,” he said.

“We’re limited on our choices and limited on what we can do,” Councilman Felipe Aguirre said. “We don’t want to file for bankruptcy. We don’t want to disappear as a city.”

I hate to be the one to tell you Mr. Aguirre, but you just did disappear as a city.

There are many problems for which I have no solution.

Patrick O’Donnell with Cleveland.Com writes about one of them…

Sarah Zatik retired two years ago, at the age of 53, but she never stopped working.

The Parma schools superintendent immediately was rehired into the same job. It was all pre-arranged, just a matter of paperwork.

The bookkeeping move brought Zatik a big financial benefit, despite a $15,000 cut in salary after being rehired. By retiring, she could start collecting well over $100,000 a year in retirement payments from the state in addition to her $158,000 superintendent’s pay. Thanks to a state retirement system that allows retirement at a young age, Zatik can collect both a paycheck and her retirement payments for 12 years before she hits the standard retirement age of 65.

She is a member in an exclusive club of double-dipping superintendents, who retire and return to their same jobs or rotate to other school districts.

An analysis by Ohio’s eight largest newspapers found:

One in four public school leaders in Ohio’s 614 districts bring home the bacon twice.

Part of the problem of not having a solution to this situation is I have no idea how this practice evolved into what it is now.

But this practice has never passed my smell test and never will.

Adam Pagnucco is retiring from writing a blog. He wrote a local political blog in Maryland.

I had never read Adam until he made this announcement. I like his parting assessment of local politicians.

Elected officials are not the cardboard, All-American baby-kissing characters they try to become at election time. Nor are they all evil, money-grubbing con artists as they are frequently portrayed by the media. Yes, many of them are insecure, needy, egotistical and overly sensitive, though there are plenty of exceptions. A few of them are even paranoid, arrogant and self-obsessed. But the vast majority of them enter politics with some spark of good intent in their hearts. Many of them really do have beliefs, and even principles, and are not faking them. Most of them want to perform well.

What the public never sees are the sacrifices they make. I can’t count the number of times elected officials have despaired in private conversations with me – often very emotionally – about the impact of their office-holding on their families, their careers, their finances, their social relationships outside of politics, their enjoyment of the fun things in life, and even on their emotional condition. Some sacrifice these things for the wrong reasons. Maybe it’s ego or the need to be recognized. These people become little more than the badges they wear on their chests. But some sacrifice these things for the right reasons, like a true dedication to helping others. The really good ones often can’t serve without giving 100%. I sympathize. I wish there was a reliable way for the voters to tell apart the good ones from the mediocre ones and the really bad ones.

Amen.

Local governments are famous for spending money on a “plan” then ignoring it. There are literally millions of plans sitting on shelves across the nation collecting dust. One such plan is in Billings, MT.

It’s no easy task to identify the worst part of the Billings City Council’s vote against disc golf in Pioneer Park last week, but let me try.

The worst part wasn’t the council’s arrogant, condescending attitude toward disc golfers, who were characterized by opponents — a characterization not challenged by anyone on the council — as rude, belligerent, drug-abusing gang bangers.

It wasn’t the council’s craven surrender to that small group of opponents, who trooped to the microphone to gripe about the damage being done to “their” park.

It wasn’t even the council’s breezy refusal to consider the results of a professionally conducted, statistically accurate survey of city residents, which showed broad support for disc golf in Pioneer Park.

No, it was this: The City Council spent $86,000 of our money on a huge, detailed master plan for Pioneer Park. That plan laid out a thorough, virtually no-cost series of recommendations that would have dealt with every substantive problem associated with disc golf in the park.

And what did the council do? It utterly ignored those recommendations and simply voted to remove disc golf from the master plan, effectively banning that sport from the park. The council might as well have voted to burn $86,000 on Community Seven television.

What plan is sitting on your shelf being ignored?

Every now and then you can read about some community who is discussing the leashing of cats. Treat cats as dogs are treated. Now days that community is Barre, VT.

As a newly elected Mayor in 1984 I had to preside over that issue coming before our City Council and I ended up casting the tie breaking vote to leash cats.

The uproar was reported from coast to coast. The cards and letters flowed into the office.

This story can be found in Moving Mountains and Molehills Local Politics 101 where I dissect the events that led to this issue, what happened and why.

Order yours today!

I really like “young politician” stories. The younger the better.

That’s why I like Dodge Landesman.

Dodge has his head screwed on straight.

At 19 he sees the need for even more youthful involvement in politics…

As an example of the importance of young adults involving themselves in politics, Landesman brought up local bars and the noise they cause, an issue often discussed by community boards. He said that while older residents clearly have an opinion on the matter, and while noise pollution is a concern, it’s also important to hear from younger people, who are often the ones making the noise.

Now is that common sense or what?

We need more Dodge Landesmans in politics.

Naperville, Illinois is considering term limits for their city officials.

“One of the big pros [of term limits] is getting fresh blood in,” … “One of the big cons is losing institutional knowledge.”

I’ve always been opposed to term limits. I believe term limits are already in place and they are called elections.

When only 1/3 of local elections are opposed why would we want to prohibit good incumbents from serving again?

Local activists who push for this type of legislation would be better off if they spent their time recruiting new candidates to run against the bad incumbents and let the good incumbents remain.

I can’t ever remember a story like Alvin Greene’s story. Mr. Greene is the U.S. Senate candidate from South Carolina after he …

inexplicably defeated a heavily favored former legislator and judge to become the state’s Democratic nominee for the Senate.

The Associated Press reported that Mr. Greene was arrested in November and is facing a felony obscenity charge; he is accused of showing pornography to a University of South Carolina student. He had been discharged “involuntarily” from the Army and showed no signs of having waged an actual campaign in recent months — no advertising, no staff, no money.

Who are the Democrats blaming for this situation?

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., has suggested Greene is a Republican plant and has called on federal authorities to investigate where the money came from.

We haven’t heard the last of this story. At least I hope we haven’t.

Yesterday I attended a 12 and under girls softball tournament. A granddaughter was playing in it. The problem is the granddaughter is 13. The coach lied about her age in order for her to play. I don’t know how many other girls on the team were illegal.

My granddaughters team won the championship. They celebrated. They took the team pictures. They acted like they won the tournament fair and square and deserved the medals around their necks.

I found the entire day to be absolutely disgusting.

I last served on jury duty in 1982. You would think it would be time for me to do it again soon.

Some people don’t want to serve on jury duty.

An Arizona man who bluntly expressed his displeasure about being called to jury duty has landed himself in legal hot water. Timothy Michael Jones was ordered to appear Tuesday in court to explain why he sent back a jury questionnaire with obscenities written in black marker.

He failed to show and Yuma County Superior Court Judge Andrew Gould issued a bench warrant. Jones now faces a charge of indirect criminal contempt, which carries possible penalties of six months in jail and a fine of up to $300.

Court records show Jones was sent a jury summons last month telling him he had been randomly selected as a prospective juror along with the questionnaire.

I found jury duty a fascinating life experience.

I would welcome the opportunity to serve again.

How about you?

Why did the FBI pay Joran van der Sloot $15,000?

I’ve read and reread this article and others and I just don’t get it.

Can anyone help me understand this?

To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and call whatever you hit the target.

Ashley Brilliant

Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.
Alexander Graham Bell.

I have read opinion polls that find most people fear public
speaking more than they fear death. This fear obviously plays
into the fact that few people appear to speak before their local
government boards, commissions and committees.

So, what is a person to do when they believe they have something
important to say to their local government? You prepare, if you
wish to be successful. That can be done in one of two ways.

1) You can avoid public speaking all together by writing a
letter. Not an email. A letter.  A courteous letter. You remember those.
They can still be used to influence your local government officials.

Send the letter to each of the members of the board or committee
you wish to convey your message. Send this letter if possible,
at least a week before the meeting.

Include you name and contact information so they may be able to
get in touch with you for more information. Do not send an
anonymous letter. An anonymous letter will mean nothing and
probably be thrown away.

You want this letter to arrive early so that they have time to
think about what you have to say. You want your message to stand
the test of time. If the letter arrives the same day as the
meeting, the member does not have much time to digest your
opinion.

Letters sent in advance of a meeting give the members time to
think about your message. By doing this, your message can
sometimes be much more effective than waiting to speak until the
last minute at the meeting.

2) If you are going to speak, make sure you are prepared to
speak. Plan on a 3-5 minute speech at most. If you have more to
say than that, you should be writing a letter anyway.

Write your speech. The complete speech. Word for word, how you
want to say, whatever you want to say. Then practice reading the
speech. Word for word. You will only have a 3-5 minute speech so
you can read and practice your speech many times. As you read
and reread the speech you will automatically learn which words
and phrases are most important and where the emphasis goes in
the speech.

Don’t be bashful about reading your speech. Believe me, the
members of the governing body would much rather have you read
your speech than have you “wing it.”

Over the years I have seen many citizens appear without a
written speech or even notes. They ramble on from point to point
with no coherent message. They stumble and stammer not knowing
or remembering what exactly they thought they wanted to say.
Their message is ignored, because nobody could figure out what
their message was.

Don’t let that happen to you! Prepare for success!

Evidently New Jersey has done away with teaching civics classes in high school. In response to that action the following Letter to the Editor, written by 17 year old Joe Mayes, was published on ThisisJersey.Com.

RAMSAY Cudlipp predicted in his comment piece ‘Politics isn’t too complicated for the young. It’s too dull’ (JEP, 26 May) that he would be lambasted for having the temerity to assume that young people don’t care about politics.

I would not want to lambast his views but I certainly believe that he has missed the point concerning politics amongst teenagers and why better political education for young people in Jersey is a matter of importance.

While I would agree with Mr Cudlipp that politics can be boring, this isn’t the real issue. For young people, many things in life are boring. Writing essays, memorising formulae, conjugating French verbs all are things that hardly get the pulses racing but still have to be done in school. They are considered to be of importance and therefore they form part of our school curriculum.

But why is it then that politics should not form a part of a Jersey student’s education? Is it any less important than learning about subjects such as science or mathematics? Local politics ultimately affects all of our lives (particularly in a small Island of nine by five) and therefore I see it as a gross oversight that Jersey teenagers should learn nothing of it at school.

In the current situation most young people slip through the net unaware of the workings of the local political system and therefore taking their apathy and under-informed views into adulthood. If it’s not given to them directly of course teenagers won’t actively seek politics out. Mr Cudlipp is right: Facebook remains more appealing.

Yet this doesn’t have to be the case. I believe 16- and 17-year-olds in Jersey should spend one of their PSE lessons a week (all I ask for is one!) being taught about how local politics works. Encourage some class debate on key issues and debunk the mythical States Chamber with all its Senators, Deputies, scrutiny panels etc.

It may be boring but at the end of the day we are the voters of tomorrow and democracy does not stand a chance in this Island if we are given no grounding in what/who we are voting for. Putting politics back on the agenda should be a States priority and re-addressing this balance must start in the schools.

I predict big things for Joe in the future.

The kid has moxie.

I like moxie.

Guest Post by Joe Garecht  (http://www.localvictory.com)

Almost every great campaign has a great political campaign manager standing behind it.  Apart from the candidate, the campaign manager is the most important person on the team, responsible not only for the day to day operations of the campaign, but also for a significant portion of the big-picture planning and strategy.

Small local campaigns often have a hard time finding a qualified and available campaign manager.  Often, their solution is to have the candidate serve as his own campaign manager, guiding a team of volunteers, family, and friends.  This is a huge mistake.  Every campaign needs a campaign manager that is not the candidate, even if the manager is only a volunteer or part-time staff member.  Candidates need to shake hands, make speeches, and ask for donations… they can’t do those jobs if they are also trying to run the day to day operations of the campaign.

Where, then, can a small, local campaign find a talented campaign manager?  Here are some places to start the search:

- Managers of Past Elections – talk to former candidates for the office you are seeking, as well as candidates and politicians in your area to find out who is running the smaller campaigns in your community and whether or not they are available.

- Your Local Political Party – call your local party headquarters and ask who they would recommend.  Often, political operatives with only a few campaigns under their belt maintain a relationship with local party offices seeking new opportunities.

- Recent College Graduates – check with your local college’s political science department (both undergrad and graduate programs) to see if they know anyone who might be interested in getting their feet wet in a campaign management position.  You’d be surprised how many poli sci majors in college also have significant volunteer campaign experience by the time they graduate.

- Friends of the Candidate – while it is often more desirable to have a political campaign manager who has campaign experience, it is not always possible to find someone who has experience and is available.  Under these circumstances, the campaign should seek out a friend of the candidate who is organized, confident, and willing to learn to serve as campaign manager, possibly with ongoing counsel from paid consultants.

Finding a great political campaign manager is a tough task for campaigns without great exposure or lots of cash, but it can be done.  Ask around, talk to previous candidates and current politicians, and don’t forget your local college campus. Above all, remember that letting the candidate serve as his or her own campaign manager is often a recipe for trouble.

—-Joe Garecht is a nationally known political consultant, author, and the founder of Local Victory (http://www.localvictory.com).  For more great information on how to win local elections, visit Local Victory!

Even though I am a technology boob, I continue to be fascinated it.

A few months ago I wrote about how Cincinnati tried and ditched the idea of using Kindle’s for City Council materials.

Now it is St. Petersburg’s Clearwater high school that is pushing the technology envelope.

Here’s one way to lighten a student’s backpack: say goodbye to textbooks.

Clearwater High School next year will replace traditional textbooks with e-readers. The gadgets will be fully loaded with all the textbooks students need, minus paper.

Besides offering an electronic format to read books, newspapers and magazines, the Kindle allows users to get word definitions, bookmark pages, highlight text and type notes they might otherwise scribble in the margins of a hard-bound book.

It also offers limited Internet access via a free 3G network. Students will be required to sign an agreement stating they will not use it to access inappropriate websites. The Kindle boasts a rechargeable battery life of one week when the wireless is turned on, two weeks when it isn’t. Additionally, it has the capability to convert text to voice so that users can listen to the books.

Clearwater is prepared to spend about $600,000, Just said. That’s money allocated to the school for technology and classroom materials over six years. But the district has agreed to juggle grants to help the school borrow the money from the district in advance.

What about those people not ready to go high-tech? Every class will have hard copy textbooks on hand.

But even a self-described “dinosaur” such as Kathy Biddle, who has been teaching more than 31 years, said she’s excited about how it might enhance her world history and sociology classes.

“I think it’s the way kids are thinking today,” Biddle said.

I hope this works out for them.

This past Sunday was a very special day in Kirkwood, MO.

KIRKWOOD — Visitors to the Kirkwood City Hall will now walk along a path dedicated to the six public servants who died when a resident went on a shooting rampage at a city council meeting.

The city on Sunday dedicated the Memorial Walkway, which includes plaques honoring former Mayor Mike Swoboda, city council members Connie Karr and Mike Lynch, Public Works Director Ken Yost, police Sgt. Bill Biggs and police officer Tom Ballman.

The memorial includes benches, a garden and a fountain. An inscription reads: “The citizens of Kirkwood dedicate this path in honor of the fine public servants who lost their lives in service to the community, on Feb. 7, 2008.”

“It’s nice to see there is some respect for public servants,” Ballman’s widow, Cindy, said Sunday. “I’m honored the city would do this. I think we’re really going to enjoy coming here.”

And if I ever find myself anywhere near Kirkwood I will be sure to stop and enjoy the memorial.

Good job Kirkwood!

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.

Muhammed Ali

We have our fair share of clunker politicians.

The liars, cheaters and worse.

Both parties.

Equal opportunity scum.

Then there is Taiwan.

The construction boss known as Mr. Pumpkinman has a lengthy criminal record _ and a prominent place in Taiwan’s legislature.

Yen Ching-piao, 49, who has served time for weapons and racketeering convictions, is part of a little-discussed phenomenon in Taiwanese politics: the prevalence of criminals in elected posts.

By one estimate, 15 to 30 percent of the lawmakers in Taiwan’s 15 counties _ roughly equivalent to U.S. states _ have criminal backgrounds. Some run illegal gambling dens or massage parlors. No matter. They endear themselves to voters as any other good politician would: by using their money and influence, ill-gotten or not, to deliver services to constituents.

It has proven a particularly successful strategy in Taiwan because of the island’s notoriously unresponsive bureaucracy.

Elementary school principal Li Shuen-liang, who lost to Yen in the 2008 legislative elections, said one of his opponent’s major advantages was his ability to deliver tangible benefits to voters, rather than just airy ideological declarations that few care about.

A turning point came in the campaign when Yen provided dozens of computers to area schools, seemingly with no strings attached.

“Gangsters want grass roots supporters’ votes and not their money so they take good care of them,” Li said.

His view was echoed by janitor Chi Tsueng-ing, who lavished praise on Yen for helping her daughter’s boyfriend visit a friend in jail, without asking for a customary gift in return.

“We all admire him and vote for him,” Chi said, “He’s just like a god because he answers our wishes.”