COMMENTARY
PHOTO COURTESY OF FLORIDA LEAGUE OF CITIES
QC
FAREWELL
Public Service Matters 30 years of advice, teaching and listening by Scott C. Paine Florida League of Cities
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having the capacity to adequatehad forgotten about this one. ly serve them. Or the double oath Doing some office cleaning, I imposed upon Pedro de Valdivia found my copy of my tenure packet, a modest 3-inch-thick binder full by the citizens of Santiago, Chile, of course syllabi, student classroom before they would accept him as climate surveys, publications, preGovernor, a reminder that when we sentations and notes of praise and take the oath of office, we ought to thanks. And there, near the back, mean it. Or my pastor preaching at was my first article in the League’s his father’s funeral, a symbol of so magazine, Quality Cities (QC). It many public leaders who, in times was next to a thank you letter from of community suffering and loss, find something beyond themselves Beth Dolan, who was the Citizenship that empowers them to bring healEducation Director for the Florida ing and hope in the midst of their League of Cities (FLC) in May 1993. own pain. Almost 30 years ago. – Henry Drummond, Scottish evangelist, There also have been very perI’ve spilled a lot of digital ink since biologist, writer and lecturer sonal columns. When our daughthen. ter, Bakhita, died in 2003, I found I wrote another article in the mid1990s that was a reflection on the it necessary to bring that story to balancing act of public service and one’s private life. By late 2000, QC’s pages and received gracious prayers and words of encourageI was writing regularly for QC. ment from so many FLC staff and QC readers that helped me heal. Over the ensuing 22 years, I’ve written about policy, politics and When our nation was confronted by the death of George Floyd and the personal challenges (and joys) of public service. I have often our failure to love all of our neighbors as ourselves, I unfolded a employed metaphors and analogies to connect the unique realities painful account of my own implicit bias, and I hoped to encourage of public service to the more familiar. There was the blue hermore of us to take that deep look in the mirror. on I watched one morning trying to swallow a very large catfish, It is said of preachers that each one has about six sermons in which came to symbolize the Catch-22 many cities have faced after them. What we hear week after week is simply the reworking of landing new businesses or residential developments without yet those themes with different material. It’s a sharp-edged, mildly
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Our success in
influencing or elevating others is in proportion to their belief in our belief in them.
18 QUALITY CITIES | THIRD QUARTER 2022
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