[The following “revised and extended” remarks are based on my address to the Cathedral City Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, October 6, 2010.]
When my Cathedral city neighbors first called me to service as a city councilman, I didn’t make a lot of promises I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to keep.
I didn’t offer undertakings that would depend upon a vote, because as anyone who has ever served in local government can tell you, with a five person council, you always have to be able to count to three.
The promises I did make were ones I knew I could keep.
I promised that I would be independent, that I would be innovative, and I would carry out the duties of my office with integrity.
I have kept all of those promises.
I have been and will continue to be independent. I am not a member of any clique, group, or faction in city government. The only team I play for is team Cathedral City, the more than 50,000 neighbors whom it is my honor to serve. And on your behalf -as The Desert Sun noted when it endorsed my re-election- I have never been afraid to ask the tough questions; I won’t march along with the status quo, and I won’t accept conformist groupthink. My commitment is, and always has been, that I will represent 100 percent of the people of this community 100 percent of the time, no matter how you look, how you live, or how you love; how you work, how you worship, or how you vote.
I have kept that promise.
Not only have I been independent, I have also been, and will continue to be, the most innovative and forward-thinking member of the city Council. The tangible proof of my track record of innovation can be seen in Cathedral City’s Downtown Energy Savings/Conservation Initiative, which is not only saving the City more than $100,000 a year off its Edison bill, but which is also reducing greenhouse gas emissions by hundreds of tons a year, and helping enhance America’s national security by incrementally reducing our national dependence on nonrenewable fossil fuels.
If re-elected, I will work to bring to Cathedral city an initiative that has been successful in other Riverside County communities, which brings together Labor and the development community in an innovative apprenticeship project to teach unemployed workers building-trades skills while rehabilitating homes which have been abandoned through foreclosure or because their owners simply walked away from burdens they could no longer bear.
If re-elected I will insist that we take up again the great work of not only greening Cathedral City’s economy by encouraging economic development in the new, emerging “green industries,” but also by exploring the possibility of a waste fired electricity generating plant to enable the city either to sell electricity to a utility or, through community choice aggregation, to sell electricity to our own residents less expensively than Edison does. Such an energy solution represents a win-win; proceeds of electricity sales to utilities can go to augment our struggling general fund, and a community choice aggregation could enable the city to provide inexpensive electricity to residents while also helping to grow our general fund -- all without having to seek any new tax increases.
That’s a promise of innovation I’ll push to make real for all of my fellow residents in Cathedral City.
I have conducted myself with integrity. I have never been, and will never be, a captive of any special interest group, any time or anywhere. I have never sought, and will never seek, to enrich myself or anyone close to me at the expense of the public fisc. I have not sought, and will not accept, the endorsement of any collective bargaining unit with which the City is now, or may be, engaged in employee contract negotiations. I would never want to subject any collective bargaining unit, the City, or myself, to the slightest degree of suspicion with respect to the contract negotiation process.
These are the self-denying promises I made when I first took office, and I can proudly look my neighbors in the eye and say that I have kept them, and will keep them.
But public service is not just based on making and keeping promises about oneself and one’s conduct. For not only did I make promises which I have kept, but I also made some very simple commitments about the way in which I would approach policy and public service.
I made a commitment that I would be a careful steward of the public’s money. I have said “no” to expenditures that I felt were wasteful, frivolous, or were better made by the private sector. I have been the Grinch by voting “no” on the downtown Christmas tree lighting, because I feel it is an opportunity to bring the private sector into partnership with the city to support a non-core activity that should not be subsidized using scarce taxpayer dollars. I have also consistently opposed the unconstrained growth of the city’s general fund budget, because I feel, and have felt, that we must draw the line against dipping too far, too fast, too soon, into reserves that -despite the sunny sentiments of some in city government- continue to diminish.
In tough economic times, the greatness of the community is measured by the extent to which we the people come together and see each other through to better days. We cannot afford the false and dangerous luxury of fragmenting this most richly diverse community in our Coachella Valley by indulging in wedge issue or culture war politics.
While others may seek to turn on one another, working out their insecurities in a politics of division, I ask my neighbors to recommit to building a Cathedral City we can all be proud to live in, to work in, to invite visitors to enjoy, and most importantly, to pass on to our posterity.
I am ready to continue that great work. I ask for your help to build that Cathedral City we know is possible, and I ask for your vote so that together we can all see each other through to better days.
When my Cathedral city neighbors first called me to service as a city councilman, I didn’t make a lot of promises I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to keep.
I didn’t offer undertakings that would depend upon a vote, because as anyone who has ever served in local government can tell you, with a five person council, you always have to be able to count to three.
The promises I did make were ones I knew I could keep.
I promised that I would be independent, that I would be innovative, and I would carry out the duties of my office with integrity.
I have kept all of those promises.
I have been and will continue to be independent. I am not a member of any clique, group, or faction in city government. The only team I play for is team Cathedral City, the more than 50,000 neighbors whom it is my honor to serve. And on your behalf -as The Desert Sun noted when it endorsed my re-election- I have never been afraid to ask the tough questions; I won’t march along with the status quo, and I won’t accept conformist groupthink. My commitment is, and always has been, that I will represent 100 percent of the people of this community 100 percent of the time, no matter how you look, how you live, or how you love; how you work, how you worship, or how you vote.
I have kept that promise.
Not only have I been independent, I have also been, and will continue to be, the most innovative and forward-thinking member of the city Council. The tangible proof of my track record of innovation can be seen in Cathedral City’s Downtown Energy Savings/Conservation Initiative, which is not only saving the City more than $100,000 a year off its Edison bill, but which is also reducing greenhouse gas emissions by hundreds of tons a year, and helping enhance America’s national security by incrementally reducing our national dependence on nonrenewable fossil fuels.
If re-elected, I will work to bring to Cathedral city an initiative that has been successful in other Riverside County communities, which brings together Labor and the development community in an innovative apprenticeship project to teach unemployed workers building-trades skills while rehabilitating homes which have been abandoned through foreclosure or because their owners simply walked away from burdens they could no longer bear.
If re-elected I will insist that we take up again the great work of not only greening Cathedral City’s economy by encouraging economic development in the new, emerging “green industries,” but also by exploring the possibility of a waste fired electricity generating plant to enable the city either to sell electricity to a utility or, through community choice aggregation, to sell electricity to our own residents less expensively than Edison does. Such an energy solution represents a win-win; proceeds of electricity sales to utilities can go to augment our struggling general fund, and a community choice aggregation could enable the city to provide inexpensive electricity to residents while also helping to grow our general fund -- all without having to seek any new tax increases.
That’s a promise of innovation I’ll push to make real for all of my fellow residents in Cathedral City.
I have conducted myself with integrity. I have never been, and will never be, a captive of any special interest group, any time or anywhere. I have never sought, and will never seek, to enrich myself or anyone close to me at the expense of the public fisc. I have not sought, and will not accept, the endorsement of any collective bargaining unit with which the City is now, or may be, engaged in employee contract negotiations. I would never want to subject any collective bargaining unit, the City, or myself, to the slightest degree of suspicion with respect to the contract negotiation process.
These are the self-denying promises I made when I first took office, and I can proudly look my neighbors in the eye and say that I have kept them, and will keep them.
But public service is not just based on making and keeping promises about oneself and one’s conduct. For not only did I make promises which I have kept, but I also made some very simple commitments about the way in which I would approach policy and public service.
I made a commitment that I would be a careful steward of the public’s money. I have said “no” to expenditures that I felt were wasteful, frivolous, or were better made by the private sector. I have been the Grinch by voting “no” on the downtown Christmas tree lighting, because I feel it is an opportunity to bring the private sector into partnership with the city to support a non-core activity that should not be subsidized using scarce taxpayer dollars. I have also consistently opposed the unconstrained growth of the city’s general fund budget, because I feel, and have felt, that we must draw the line against dipping too far, too fast, too soon, into reserves that -despite the sunny sentiments of some in city government- continue to diminish.
In tough economic times, the greatness of the community is measured by the extent to which we the people come together and see each other through to better days. We cannot afford the false and dangerous luxury of fragmenting this most richly diverse community in our Coachella Valley by indulging in wedge issue or culture war politics.
While others may seek to turn on one another, working out their insecurities in a politics of division, I ask my neighbors to recommit to building a Cathedral City we can all be proud to live in, to work in, to invite visitors to enjoy, and most importantly, to pass on to our posterity.
I am ready to continue that great work. I ask for your help to build that Cathedral City we know is possible, and I ask for your vote so that together we can all see each other through to better days.
-xxx-
Paul S. Marchand is an attorney who lives and works in Cathedral City, where he is seeking re-election to the city council. The views expressed herein are his own. For more information, please visit his website, www.Marchand2010.com
