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Goals and objectives: next two years: David Esrati

There are things I can do and things I can’t. I just hate admitting to there being things I can’t do. So, here are my plans:

Continue to work on identifying and publicizing tax giveaways to private corporations- what I call “corporate welfare”- by government in the name of “economic development.” Politicians have no business being investment bankers- and if they did, Wall Street pays much better- and actually expects a real return (well, that’s the principle they were supposed to be working on). Goal is a national ban on tax breaks for anything other than a “walk to work” tax credit which would help end our dependence on foreign oil, cut down on sprawl, and encourage healthier, sustainable living.

Continue to expose the Montgomery County Democratic Party as a patronage mill, more interested in its self-preservation as a private club, than as a part of a party that had the ability to elect Barack Obama president of the United States. They better have a credible candidate to run against Mike Turner is all I can say.

Spread sunlight on all public meetings and the processes of government. I’m hoping that Mayor Elect Gary Leitzell puts an end to secret, undocumented meetings of the Dayton City Commission. It’s also time they learn how to produce ADA compliant PDFs of public record documents.

Work to identify and encourage a large group of people to run in 2011. I’ve identified at least 3 others, in addition to myself and have a few more to work on. Not only will we have debates, they will be real debates, with candidates asking each other questions. I’ll also teach them how to do their own websites and build substantive platforms. No more speeches that list qualifications as “I was born and raised in Dayton.”

Build a database of voters that all candidates can use, including as many correct phone numbers and e-mails as possible. There has to be a way to run campaigns for less than $10k per seat.

Work with Mayor Elect Gary Leitzell and Commissioner Joey Williams (and anyone else who wants to be involved) on restructuring the priority board system and engaging residents to take back their own neighborhoods. Ken Wade is working on this with his “Citizens 4 Change” and his site http://www.ourdayton.com/ [1] I look forward to meeting Ken when he returns from Iraq.

Figure out how to reach the people on the other side of the “digital divide” cost effectively in Dayton. There are a lot of people who have no access to this site, or even e-mail.

Launch Bcycle [2] in Dayton without using any public money. Bike sharing will have a huge perception impact for the money.

Spend more time with my parents, and my amazing girlfriend and her kids.

Rebuild my business [3]. These two runs for office (the Congressional campaign last year) – have taken their toll.

Ask others for more help. I tend to try to be superman doing things single handed. If there is one thing that has hurt me time after time, it’s been trying to do too much myself, starting with this ambitious list I’m sharing with you.

To my regular readers- I think you have a pretty good understanding of what drives me and my inner motivation. I think most of you believe that my intentions are good, my heart is in the right place, and that I’m misunderstood by many. I doubt I can undo that reputation without your help. If you want to help me get started on this quest- find your favorite posts- and share it in the comments with your reason for reading in the comments here- and then share that with your friends.

Thank you.

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Will Brooks

You know where I am on helping. We’ll talk soon.

Nathan Driver

Feel free to hit me up anytime David – I NEED Dayton to get better