The idea came to me from Mobile County School Board Commissioner Johnny Hatcher. He thought about what his office needed to do in 2025 and posted the goals on social media.
Johnny formatted his 2025 to-do list as Christmas wishes to Santa Claus. Since Santa won’t automatically deliver the items (you have to work to get them done) and since it won’t get done on Christmas Day or any other day, it occurred to me that New Year's resolutions by our public officials would be appropriate.
Would it help if our public officials each sat down, did some thinking ahead, and wrote out their official resolutions for 2025? Think of what things might be the 2025 work resolutions of your:
City council member
Mayor
County Commissioner
Local board of education member
State Representative
State Senator
State board of education member
Congress member
Two U.S. Senators
Governor
President
Other officials
In America, under our constitutional republic, each public official is to be a public servant—a servant leader. Those serving a district or state are to represent their constituents within the framework of the Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights.
This project of turning generalized good intentions into specific, written resolutions could produce good results. The process would help each official to think and project forward for the next year with priorities.
The New Year's resolutions project by public officials would serve some of the same purposes as a mission statement; only this would be a yearly snapshot of steps toward fulfilling that mission.
While Commissioner Johnny Hatcher's Christmas wishes apply specifically to his county of Mobile and, more so, to his single-member district in West Mobile, some of the ideas could be studied by any school district in Alabama.
Hatcher’s county and district are home to overcrowded and still growing Baker High School and Causey Middle School.
Here is Hatcher's Christmas wish list. Since Christmas is over, it now converts to a New Year’s list:
Dear Santa, I apologize for the delay in sharing my Christmas wishes. Firstly, I'd like to see 6th graders return to elementary school where they belong.
Secondly, I would like to combine 7th, 8th, and 9th graders in a single Junior High School, which would eliminate the need for another high school in my district due to more manageable numbers.
Thirdly, I wish for a new state-of-the-art Baker High School, which would allow the current Baker High School to be repurposed as a Junior High School, alleviating overcrowding at Causey Middle School.
Fourthly, I'd like to see a new elementary school built in the rapidly growing West Mobile area.
Fifthly, we need to add more law enforcement professionals to our schools to ensure the safety of students and faculty.
Sixthly, I want to put cameras in all classrooms to help teachers maintain discipline and control.
Lastly, I wish to end the wasteful spending of MCPSS dollars, ensuring that the funds allocated support our children's education rather than lining the pockets of greedy contractors.
South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom posted these resolutions at the beginning of 2018. They are much more generalized than Hatcher's:
Remember whose money we're spending
Commit to transparency
Focus on issues that matter
Elevate the debate
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.
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