Tonight I was sworn in as the Mayor of East Petersburg, Pennsylvania.  After four years of serving on council it was wierd sitting "in the Mayor's seat" across the table.  All to remind me that I've come a long way in my public service journey since 2004 when I won that first election.

After recently reading stirring biographies of John Adams and Harry Truman, I’ve grown interested in Grover Cleveland.  His integrity and desire to tell the truth have struck a chord with me as I look forward to my term serving as Mayor of the borough of East Petersburg.  This from Mr. Cleveland's first Inaugural address:

“But he who takes the oath to day to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States only assumes the solemn obligation which every patriotic citizen on the farm, in the workshop, in the busy marts of trade, and everywhere should share with him. The Constitution which prescribes his oath, my countrymen is yours; the Government you have chosen him to administer for a time is yours; the suffrage which executes the will of freemen is yours; the laws and the entire scheme of our civil rule, from the town meeting to the State capitals and the national capital, is yours. Your every voter, as surely as your Chief Magistrate, under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, exercises a public trust.

Nor is this all.  Every citizen owes to the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its public servants, and a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity and usefulness.   Thus is the people's will impressed upon the whole framework of our civil polity - municipal, State, and Federal; and this is the price of our liberty and the inspiration of our faith in the Republic."

I believe that, captured in this call to national accountability dating back to 1885, lie my reasons for entering public service.  After years of spectating, I made the decision to put my hat in the ring.  I felt the timing was right once my family relocated to Pennsylvania in 2003 and looked forward to many years raising our children in the region.  Today, my assumption of the Mayoral role is the culmination of 6 years of community involvement in East Petersburg.

No, I don’t get an office – or a car – or any income.

Yes, you can call me “hizzoner” – and yes, I can marry people (bet you didn’t know THAT one).

The primary role of the municipal Mayor is twofold: the first is law enforcement, and I am happy to report that East Petersburg retains the excellent services of the Manheim Township Police Department.  I’ll be working with the Chief and locally-assigned officers.  The second role is to provide leadership to the community…a much less defined role than the first! 

In organizing my goals and objectives for my coming term, I’m pulling on the lessons learned over the last 6 years serving the community in “East Pete”.  I’m sure my background of four years on Borough Council interacting with daily public business & financial accountability will help, as will my continual activity since 2004 on behalf of what we call the East Petersburg Day Committee.  That group of dedicated volunteers has organized the annual festival of the same name every September, as well as aiding local groups to put on events and donating money to help make purchases of community items as diverse as a town clock and defibrillator for the fire company.  I’ve been especially privileged to serve alongside & learn from many outstanding East Pete volunteers – and I’ll be looking to them once again as Mayor, to help me use my new role to continue to move the town forward.

In upcoming posts, I’ll talk about the nature of local governance.  I’ll also talk about the fleshing out of a community vision plan, and how to go about bringing business and service groups together with volunteers to implement ideas.  Whatever community you happen to live in, by the way, could use your involvement. Throughout this series of articles, I’ll be encouraging each of us to take our stewardship of the “the public trust” referred to by President Cleveland seriously.  Today, more than ever, our system of government needs people of character who will answer the call to service.