An open letter to the next mayor, council
Shelby Rognstad
There’s a lot that I’ve learned over the last 15 serving the city of Sandpoint on the Planning and Zoning Commission, City Council and now two terms as mayor. I encourage the incoming electeds to keep a few things in mind.
In 2018 the City Council approved the city’s first Strategic Plan. The plan, updated in 2022, marked an evolution in how our city government operates. In it, the council committed to strategic, data-driven decision-making.
This was significant because, as newly elected councilors and mayor will soon discover, the pressure to make reactionary decisions based on the loudest voices in the room is overwhelmingly powerful and ever-present. In my experience, nearly all newly electeds make this mistake and many veterans as well. This results in rash decisions that don’t consider long-term consequences or everyone impacted.
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