Continuing the journey...
About two and a half years ago, I left employment with the City of Wilson after a little over a decade, with all intention of moving back to the private sector. (More on that to come.) Upon my departure, I wrote a letter to the Wilson Times about what I had learned and experienced during my time with
the City.
Now, as I start a new quest to serve our community as City Council representative for District 5, it seemed a fitting place to begin the conversation again.
~~~~~~~~~
This past Friday, I completed my eleven year journey with the City of Wilson’s Downtown Development team and will transition back to the private sector.
I accepted the position to be part of something I believed in; something that would benefit the city I have called home for thirty years. Our small group of dedicated citizens and staff took on the challenge of bringing the colorful, kinetic works of whimsy designed and created by local folk artist, Vollis Simpson, to serve as a catalyst for economic revitalization. We believed...but change is hard. It took over seven years of pushing that boulder uphill with considerable community pushback. However, once the park opened and people could actually see what had been envisioned, the boulder picked up steam. As of this writing, there has been over $300 million of public/private investment in an area that, for decades, had been left for dead.
At the beginning of the journey, I transitioned from small business owner and volunteer, to Downtown Marketing & Communications Coordinator for local government...planning and executing community events as well as handling traditional and digital media. Along the way, I learned two things that I’d like to share:
1. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
When I was an entrepreneur, I had the autonomy to identify issues and implement measures to resolve them as quickly as possible. Government, by design, was formed to serve all people, and uses processes to ensure that one voice cannot make decisions for everyone. Government employees do not, for the most part, have the same autonomy. Wheels turn more slowly when consensus is required. Local government also doesn’t have the responsibility or authority to fix all of the problems that concern us as citizens. For example, many of our roads are owned and maintained by the City, but more of them than you might realize belong to the State and, as such, are their responsibility. Every day, I learned new things that affected plans we wanted to implement...from Supreme Court decisions regarding signage and freedom of speech to Alcohol and Law Enforcement regulations to dated city ordinances that needed community support and council approval for change. As a result, many projects took much longer than I, and my team members, would have liked...or never happened at all, at least for the time being. I've always been tenacious, but I had to develop a lot more patience.
Part of that patience involved developing long-term relationships with members of other City departments such as Wilson Energy, Greenlight, Parks and Recreation, Streets, Wilson PD, Wilson Fire, and Environmental Services. Their willingness to collaborate was critical in being able to bring you the community events you’ve come to enjoy and expect. Shout out to all of them who have had my back over the years.
2. That's not how that works.
~ Are you familiar with how your city and county are organized and which entity has responsibility for which functions?
~ Are you aware that the award-winning Whirligig Festival, and most of our other community events, are not planned and executed by the City, but by non-profit organizations? (The Wilson Downtown Development non-profit organization, which managed most of the community events over the last decade, is happy to now have many active event partners, such as Wilson Arts, the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, Casita Brewing Company, and Iconostar, to share the responsibility and workload.)
~ Do you know who your city council representative and/or county commissioner is? They are your first point of contact for local concerns that you cannot get resolved, or changes you believe should be considered.
My takeaway is that we, government and citizens, must share responsibility for continuing to make Wilson even better. We cannot sit back and expect others to spoon feed everything to us. As citizens, we have a responsibility to understand how our local government works, what functions each organization is responsible for, and the procedures and processes in place to resolve concerns and issues. Government, in turn, has the responsibility to make that information readily available and easily understandable.
If citizens cannot locate the information they need, a phone call or email asking for guidance and assistance first, rather than a social media post blasting (potentially) the wrong organization, should be much more fruitful. And government should respond to recurring questions as an indicator that more information may be helpful and necessary.
Where do you find that info? Start here:
WilsonNC.org (city)
wilsoncountync.gov (county)
historicdowntownwilson.com (downtown)
wilson-nc.com (tourism) (Update ComeSeeWilson.com)
ExploreWilson.com (events, biz directory) (Update ComeSeeWilson.com)
If you are on social media, also follow the Facebook and Instagram pages for these organizations to stay "in the know". And sign up for their newsletters so you won't miss new happenings!
As I step away, I am incredibly proud of the progress Wilson has made over the last decade or so to become a collaborative and progressive community that others want to emulate. We still have work to do and I have confidence that the next generation of leaders is up to the challenge.
It's been a great journey. I'll see you back in the private sector.
Susan Kellum
Comments