I stay pretty involved locally and enjoy the election time more than the next guy and this season is no disappointment.  Here in Westfield we are holding an election for the Mayors position, which will be responsible for guiding us through the next four delicate years of activity.  Of course the competition is rarely about conservative and liberals and surely not between Republicans and Democrats.  It is more of a contest between the lesser of two evils, as many see it.  Or, as I see it as a contest between the current Mayor and the loudest complainers.  Which gets me to my points.  The other night we had a debate which hosted the Mayor, Mike Waite-independent and Todd Hoard-I think independent.  It was embarrassing to see the lack of challenge and what a waste of time they were willing to put on for the sake of being called a candidate.  The two main challengers had no real plan or solution to the complaints and in the case of specific tactics to fixing a problem, there wasn’t a single one.  Mr. Waite actually made up a couple of “facts” and Todd Hoard wasn’t real familiar with the issues.  Mayor Cook was terrific in his professionalism and being familiar with local information was his biggest strength.  Mr. Cook already knows that we have a small business tax base and it costs more to be in Westfield.  He also knows that it’s a huge risk to bond a $45Mil sports complex to draw 100,000’s of visitors each year.  And most of all he understands that we understand it as voters.  What makes him different is that fact that he is able to focus on making changes and take educated risks to solve many of our communities problems.  Carmel and Avon have not grown swiftly because of the “its not the right time” theory.  And we won’t either.  But they have the right leadership, that can sit down with businesses and be connected to what will be a draw.  He has the focus to not dwell on the bad parts of every city but the value our location and community holds.  It’s great to have competition but to sit back and complain and not have a plan of attack is actually worse then charging forward and making things happen.  I hope each of you vote this year November 8th for our municipal positions.

Mike Waite Homepage

Todd Hoard Homepage

Andy Cook Homepage