Derek Bailey: Strenghtening government-to-government relations

Wednesday, January 5, 2011  

"This past October, at the Great Lakes Bioneers conference held at Northwestern Michigan College, I participated in a presentation with Traverse City Mayor Chris Bzdok. Our presentation focused on "Participating in Governance," and throughout our discussion an emerging theme became apparent: Citizens feel a stronger need to be connected as a part of their respective governments.

Following our presentation and questions that were asked, I thought about what this means and how elected officials could improve this connection. I believe we are, now more than ever, asking for true representative democracy of our elected officials. Interestingly, this is a common and expected understanding among citizens of tribal governments whom tribal officials are elected to serve.

An elected tribal official is not defined within a political party, yet represents a sovereign nation in its entirety and its citizenship. There is a strong need to build relationships with other decision-makers and leaders.

To better understand, it is truly "government-to-government" when developing relationships with local, state and federal officials. Developing and maintaining interactions that occur daily, weekly and monthly is a definite advantage in accomplishing work efforts and activities, and for making the best decisions possible."

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Derek Bailey: Strengthen citizen-gov't ties (The Traverse City Record-Eagle 1/4)