Throughout history, societies have chosen to be led by individuals not collectives. Consuls and emperors led ancient Rome — not the imperial senate. The U.S. during the early 1930’s is known as the first Roosevelt Administration not the 73^rd Congress.  La Guardia’s New York, Daley’s Chicago and Huey Long’s Louisiana are instantly recognizable.  They evoke individuals leading political entities at particular points in time. Whether famous or infamous, good or bad, the responsibility stops with the individual or, as Harry Truman stated, “the buck stops here.”

I believe that is one of the problems with the way we are now governed locally. There is no one individual in charge. There may be someone called mayor or chairperson but that person actually is a parliamentarian and not a leader with real power. We are ruled by collective, where the person actually running the governmental operation is unaccountable to the public. A communal system holds no elected individual accountable for the actual implementation of policy. Instead, implementation is left to an unelected bureaucrat, the city manager or county administrator. While that person may be competent and have the residents’ best interest at heart, they are not answerable to the public.

An example is what happened with the drainage project on North and South Carolina Avenues in Stuart. An astute politician who had to stand for election would have never let that problem occur. It does not matter whether the particular project was the right or wrong action in this instance; it was not a politic act by the bureaucracy. Political entities are best governed by an individual who is elected and held accountable by their constituents. We should not have a collective that acts as executive, legislature and, in some instances, judicial body.