New BP Candidate Interviews

 

Hello Neighbors,

As we approach another election I thought to invite each of our 3 new commissioner candidates to sit down and discuss their campaign and ideas. Please find each interview below:

Art Gonzalez- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikg_FondnH8&t=9s

Judi Hamelburg- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT0VthX7_WA

William Abreu- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9GEcTyrQbU

As for the other 3 candidates, I will be posting a future article on each of them as they all have a track record to review and analyze. 

Lastly, William mentioned during his interview a commentary Art had posted previously regarding “What Makes a Great Commissioner?” When I saw it originally, I liked the idea of reminding us all what public service is supposed to be. 

What Makes A Great Commissioner?

One item that should be first on every list: a great commissioner has a servant’s heart! Why? All commissioners are leaders; great commissioners are servant leaders. Robert K Greenleaf, who coined the term “servant leader” around 1970, said this: “The servant‐leader is a servant first…Becoming a servant‐leader begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.

That person is sharply different from one who is a leader first… The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served.” Those with a servant’s heart demonstrate certain characteristics that enable them to be great commissioners:

Effective Listening – they seek to understand what a speaker is saying to them, demonstrate their interest, and provide feedback.

Empathy – they can understand and share the feelings of the one with whom they are speaking.

Vision – they are able to assess current strengths and needs and then envision and communicate a future that builds upon the former and addresses the latter.

Persuasion – they are able to translate vision into action; they can cause people to believe in and work towards fulfilling a vision.

Accountability – they spend their time celebrating other’s success and looking for ways to improve performance than in offering criticism. When issues arise, they take responsibility publicly and work privately to avoid recurrence. 

Team Orientation – they build teams and engage them in creating and fulfilling a vision; they seek opportunities to enable team members to grow and develop knowledge and networks that will enable greater success. Those with a servant’s heart are comfortable with and prepared to demonstrate the characteristics of “2nd Century Service:”

• ·         Visioning
• ·         Continuous improvement
• ·         Engagement
• ·         Collaboration 
• ·         Linkage 

Transparency Technical skills, experience, passion, priorities – all of the things we’ve talked about before in other articles about recruiting commissioners, are important. But a servant’s heart is the single prerequisite when seeking Unit Service candidates.

Standing Watch, 

Milton Hunter

The Biscayne Parker

 

P.S. Art has a website. Here is the link: https://home.art4commissioner.com/index