It’s the most wonderful time of the election cycle

When I first got here in March, I was lucky enough to catch Mayor Will Lee’s state of the city address in-person. This was pre-Coronavirus — though I remember declining to shake hands with the vicemayor that day, because therewas a new warning going around about something particularly contagious.

I was fresh off the politics beat in Chico, and eager to see what kind of local politicians I would be dealing with here.

A fewweeks before, I had reported on the mayor there offending half the city’s businesses at his own state of the city speech — which was his second one, by the way, because he didn’t like that the Chamber of Commerce had asked him to speak on certain topics. Hewas recently removed from office by his fellow councilors.

So let’s just say, if a fight was to be had, I was primed for it.

But rather, I walked out of that meeting impressed. This new city I was in had some faults, sure. I would have been wary if there weren’t any. But Fort Bragg seemed to be in a much better, more stable place than the city I’d just left.

I’m regaling youwith this shiny-eyed story because I think it’s important to hear the perspective of an outsider on this particular topic. I know that’s hard to hear, but bear with me.

It’s literally been my job to watch politicians. ( You can ask the council in Chico just how annoying close I watched them) And, from what I’ve seen, Fort Bragg is doing pretty great. You all seem to have your head on fairly straight, the economy was doing pretty well before the virus, people had jobs — even the protests I’ve seen here were respectful and kind to one another.

All this to say: As of Monday, July 13, candidates for city council can pick up their nomination papers. Which means those of youwho think you can do better will soon have your shot.

The two council seats that are up for grabs includes

Mayor Lee and our vicemayor, Bernie Norvell. As far as I know, neither have publicly declared their intent yet to run again.

If you’re interested in mounting a challenge, you can contact the city clerk, June Lemos, at 707-961-1694 or by emailing jlemos@fortbragg. com. Lemos has put very handily put together a 400-page candidate handbook that will explain everything you need to know.

In addition, you only need about 30 signatures to make it on the ballot, and the cost of the Candidate’s Statement is covered by the city. That’s a pretty sweet deal, considering it’s a cool $600 in bothWillits and Ukiah to run a bilingual statement there.

To be eligible to run for the Fort Bragg City Council, you must be a registered voter of Fort Bragg. That means you must be: 1) a U.S. Citizen, 2) 18 or older, 3) currently living within the city limits of Fort Bragg, and 4) not convicted of any designated crimes.

If you meet all four of those requirements, you should consider running. And although I know it’s unlikely any recent high school grads will be reading this newspaper column — you should consider running too. At the very least, it’s a fascinating experience. Who knows, you could inject a little youth and fresh perspective into the city’s governance.

Before anyone makes the leap though, you should know what you’re getting into.

Say what you will about national politicians, but a local city council is where the sausage gets made. A job in the public eye is incredibly hard. (Something I can sympathize with.) Willingly throwing yourself into a high-profile, stressful job takes a certain amount of courage.

City councilors are often faced with having deeper information about a subject than just about anyone else in town, and it’s often difficult to explain to people who don’t sit in on meeting after meeting. That leads to miscommunication, which creates anger, and that’s when your constituents start making statements like, “If I was on the council …”

In politics, like every other job, compromises have to get made, but most of us don’t have to do our job in front of an audience of thousands.

Now before you accuse me of defending politicians — next week, I’ll do lawyers! — I believe holding our publicly elected figures accountable is part of the beauty of our nations’ representative democracy. We get to hold those people accountable for their decisions, because they affect all of us. That’s why I think it’s a high calling to serve your community, and it ought to be respected — even when you’re making half the community angry at any given moment.

But maybe you can do better. I’d like to see that, and I truly hope you consider running.