This post is part of a series:
- Chris Hardie Announces Council Candidacy
- The dance of newcomer and incumbent
- Demystifying running for office
- Put another white man in office?
- Going door to door
- Scenes from Primary Season
- Scenes from election day
- Chris wins in the primary!
- Post-primary analysis
- Why THIS city election matters
- On the 2012 City Budget Process
- Chris supports local challenge to ballot law
- Chris responds to public access questions for candidates
- Political parties and the "So What?" test
- Our 'insufficient' answers about hope
- A Plan for Richmond
- The balancing act in political candidate debates
- A Pledge to Voters
- Violent crime in Richmond
- Chris's campaign concludes, work continues
A recent editorial in the Palladium-Item again called for candidates in this City election to provide more detail about the specific changes and tasks we will take on if elected to improve City finances and the community as a whole.
I feel confident that in my own campaign I've provided a thorough look at how I would approach my role as a member of City Council. I've posted a consolidated list of my views on a number of issues facing the community, I've continued to post updates and more thorough commentary on the topics that have emerged in this election, and part of my history in this community as a volunteer is some extensive writings on my personal website about Richmond and our approach to governance and community building.
Still, I thought it would be helpful to the paper's readers and others if I could distill many of these ideas and proposals into a shorter and more easily digestible document. So today I'm releasing "A Plan for Richmond, Indiana" - a brief PDF document that describes 21 specific, concrete tasks I will take on if I'm elected to City Council. The tasks span across areas of improving Council's operations and transparency, economic development, partnerships in the community, and improving our self-reliance as a City. As I say in the document, it doesn't even begin to cover all the great ideas out there for ways that we can improve Richmond or all of the tasks I want to take on, but we have to start somewhere.
It's a challenging request to ask non-incumbent candidates for local office to provide detailed plans and strategy when they've not had the benefit of being in the role and putting in the significant time that is required to do that planning right. But I hope that as a part of what's now been essentially a 10 month long job interview, "A Plan for Richmond, Indiana" shows that I'm ready to start making City Council work better for the people of Richmond on day one.
The plan document will certainly be an evolving one; I welcome your feedback and suggestions.
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