Candidates' Depositions

["William K. Medlin" <dev-plan@moscow.com>]

Dear BL and all Visionaries:  What a tremendous service Bill London 
and his committee have done for this county and its communities! The 
quality and perceptiveness of most candidates' statements are great 
and truly help educate citizens about not only what their positions 
are on key issues, but also how government performs or could perform 
in implementing policies that constituents want to see enacted.
    Perhaps it's on the latter point that this medium could be helpful 
even more, that is, in soliciting goal-oriented inputs from citizens 
-- ideas about how they would like to see the community develop, 
look, relate, etc. in many different areas in the future. Most 
candidates seem to point to this lack of consensus, that is, that the 
"needs are so many" and the resources to serve them so limited, what 
can they do? Goal orientation is much less specific than making 
comments on specific legislative, fiscal and managerial issues, which 
should be left to those qualified to deal head on with them -- that's 
what officialdom is paid for. And qualified citizens can always be 
called on to help.
    I would like to see someone like Dr. Jeff Goebel over at WSU to 
take a look at this concept and develop a model for moving citizenry 
in responsible directions for goal definitions. Then, politicians and 
officials could use the consensus building as policy and managerial 
guides in their work.