A “fiduciary” is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties.
Each April we elect those who will be our local public officials for the next three years. Columbia’s city council has three seats up for election, including the mayor, who chairs the council and serves as the face of the city. The school board has two seats up for bid in a unique pooled voting arrangement.
Whoever gets picked is responsible for steering the course of key institutions in a perpetually growing community. These elected officials aren’t full time staffers like our county commissioners are but comprise a volunteer board that sets a direction and tone for their municipal or public-school organization, deferring day to day operations to a professional CEO (city manager or superintendent).
As representatives of the people, these elected officials have a fiduciary responsibility to do what’s in the best interest of the people they serve. That is, ALL the people at large — not to push their own perfect world, or people like them, or who bankrolled their election campaign, nor the squeakiest wheel pressure group that can muster a few dozen loud warm bodies to fill the chambers with from time to time.
The size and scope of issues in front of them continue to evolve into more big-city issues.
Pro-business or pro-labor union? Pro-growth or “smart growth?” Back the Blue or Defund the Police? These national controversies echo in our town meetings, but local leaders have a duty to moderate the extreme opinions so municipal institutions work for all of us.
While elected officials have a fiduciary duty, we citizens need to hold up our end of the bargain, too.
Locals at large are obviously deficient in participating in April elections, as voter turnout tends to be only about 10 to 20 percent, the upper end typically for the mayoral election.
While only one out of five or ten Columbians even show up to vote, I guarantee ten (or twenty) of ten will complain on social media. (All of which our incumbent Mayor advises officials can NOT possibly catch wind of, so please make requests directly to the city’s website.)
Public engagement works both ways. Elected officials need to know how to run an effective meeting. Citizens are free to speak at city council meetings, but rouge pontificators can’t be allowed to cuss or run way past the allotted time. But do every day, average citizens feel comfortable engaging there? Or who’s going to even show up when sessions run into the wee hours on a school night?
Pondering upon on a hypothetical everyperson anymore, I tend to imagine a thirty-something who, after picking up her kids after work, has just grabbed some things for dinner at the store. She is just trying to raise a family, keep them safe, and earn an honest living.
She is among the folks who would never run for office, might never vote in April, or even know the name of a single school board member. These folks have no interest group, no axe to grind, but are largely politically invisible.
They are folks, like all of us, who could surely use a new electric line on the south side of town, so they don’t risk future brownouts. Or decent water pressure to avoid third world boil orders. Or not feel worried about her 12-year-old daughter walking down the street or nature trail.
Even so, in an ideal world, the best interests of such unknown residents would always be front of mind of both elected officials and we who select them.
Steve Spellman is a lifelong Columbia-area resident and political observer.
