Posts have been rather thin the last couple weeks because of the holidays, what with travel and other family-oriented distractions. Somehow though—I'm not quite sure how—there were still 29 posts for December, the second-highest month for the year.
 
I'm looking forward to 2010. Posting should remain near the same levels and I hope readership will continue at the current pace or better. I see a lot of interesting happenings on the horizon, locally, nationally, and internationally. This blog will remain focused on the local, especially as it affects District 1, but the wider world sometimes injects itself locally. When that happens, it too is fair game.
 

 
Blogs come in many varieties and serve many disparate purposes. This blog is primarily to inform, to present the facts, some personal opinions, and to leave the conclusions or actions to the reader. Some blogs are written to stimulate comments. This is not one. While comments are generally welcome—feedback can be very important on some subjects—extended comments, especially back-and-forth among the posters, are not an objective of this blog. It is generally better for the public discussion to be...well, in public, such as at the Garland Citizens Forum. Also, with so many links now having been posted at this site, commercial spammers have become more common. I could introduce more elaborate technologies to make such robot posts more difficult, but it is simpler to just disable posts after a period. It serves a dual purpose: keeps comments timely and incapacitates the spammers.
 
Looking ahead in 2010, we will see the long-constructed Comprehensive Plan coming forward (Envision Garland), our budget and our fiscal challenges will retain their primetime focus, and District 1 will again have the chance to affirm or disaffirm our Council representation (that would be me). To the latter, I do plan to seek a third (and final) term in May. Term limits, thankfully, guarantee new representation after this next term. I think it is a very healthy process. However, the next term is very important to me. The first two items mentioned, the comprehensive plan and the budget, require experience and determination. Setting a fiscally-responsible and sustainable direction for the city, and all it entails, remains my primary focus. I don't believe that can be done without empowering the various moving pieces: neighborhoods, businesses, developers, investors, and our city staff. I don't believe that can be done without getting government out of the way and taking a more supportive position, a liaison position, even a catalyst position on rare occasions. I don't believe that can be done without adopting goals and strategies to enable success.
 
In the end, that describes a very wide spectrum of activity that is very interrelated. I expect to be more definitive over the next couple months.
 
I also expect to see Garland featured much more regionally and even nationally in 2010. Our successes have often been copied but we haven't always gotten the attention and recognition we deserve. Mayor Ron Jones and I worked for several months to retain and fund a marketing director position for the city. Fruits from that effort should become much more obvious this year.
 
Nationally, as the newly-named chair of the First Tier Suburbs Council, I'm working to bring the summer meeting of the council to Garland and North Texas. Cities from across the country will be here to learn what we and our neighboring cities are doing that makes us one of the leading economic areas of the country. I have to be re-elected to stay in that position, another reason for running again.
 
I have very high expectations for 2010 and I can't fathom why all of them won't be accomplished. Stay tuned!