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Public Partnership
August 05, 2006
“Partnership doesn’t mean you work there and live somewhere else.” ~ Town Mayor of Breckenridge, Colorado.
I’m watching HGTV this morning (as per usual Saturday routine), and the show currently on is Dream Builders. The show just featured the new Wellington Neighborhood in Breckenridge, CO, a Smart Growth neighborhood that gives pricing incentives/discounts to people within Summt County itself, to further encourage the public employee partnership.
It’s refreshing to see.
We have created a program which provides that where the “local price” is paid:a) House owners must be individuals, work 30 hours per week in Summit County, and reside in the house (if a unit is not owner occupied for a period greater than twelve months, the owner would be obligated to offer the unit for sale at the highest allowed sales price); and
b) Appreciation will be limited to 3% per annum or the percentage increase in AMI (Area Median Income), whichever is greater.
80% of the units will have the deed restriction. 20% of the units will be unrestricted “market” units.
Pretty darn cool. Working in a city of 641 square miles (HUGE CITY!), I am surprised, even appalled, by the number of City employees who do not live in the City. What further annoys me, is that they don’t live in the City because it’s too expensive, rather, many of them actually live in a more expensive City to the north. Some others live in largely rural areas outside the City, which is more understandable, considering that they prefer to have horses, cattle, etc. on their property. It’s the large number of others that annoy me.
Working for the public means you should connect with them - live with them. How can you fully understand the City’s needs if you aren’t living in it? Of course, to be honest, the people I know that live out of the City are also the ones that seem to be arrogant, self-absorped, technically-career oriented, they have no grasp on the real needs of the community, just the specific needs of each engineering/problem-solving task.
To me, the most-involved public servants are the most effective public servants.
Posted by paul at August 5, 2006 09:49 AM
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