Who Are You Endorsing?

I have had some people ask me who am I endorsing or support for [fill in the name of the office]? What is my position on Proposal [fill in the number]? Some people erroneously infer that if I am not endorsing a particular candidate, that I must be supporting the candidate's opponent.

I do have definite personal positions on who I will vote for on Tuesday as well as my stand on the various ballot proposals. However, you will not see me take a public position on any of the races because one of the tenets of the International City/County Management Association Code of Ethics is political neutrality.

I wrote a post on this issue on August 9, 2005. In that post I noted that one of the guidelines attached to the ethics tenet on political neutrality states: . . . in order not to impair their effectiveness on behalf of the local governments they serve, (members) shall not participate in political activities to support the candidacy of individuals running for any city, county, special district, school, state or federal offices. Specifically, they shall not endorse candidates, make financial contributions, sign or circulate petitions, or participate in fund-raising activities for individuals seeking or holding elected office.

The tenet guidelines have been modified in recent years to permit members of the International City/County Management Association to campaign and give information on behalf of a ballot issue to retain or adopt the council-manager form of government or to assist the governing body in presenting issues such as bond issues, tax increases, etc.

I encourage all Chelsea citizens to take advantage of the voter resources that Leslie Surel has put together on her web site. I especially encourage Chelseans to take a close look at Proposal 5 on education funding and its implications for state-shared revenue support for Chelsea and other municipalities.

Finally, I encourage everyone to vote on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. In my opinion you shouldn't gripe about the outcome of the election, if you didn't take the time to cast your vote.