Community values cannot be measured in economic units, but they can be destroyed when manipulated in the pursuit of economic efficiencies. To subject public policy to economic measures and to sacrifice community values to the anonymity of the global market is to undermine the very foundation of our communities. The primary duty, responsibility, and obligation of every mayor, councillor, manager and administrator is to take a sober look at the values on which their community's survival depends and to act in support of those values, whether that increases or decreases taxes and expenditures. Political and economic savvy alone will not suffice. The decisions we make today are not solutions, they are the seeds of tomorrow's problems.
Democracy takes, above all, an unwavering commitment to ethics and virtues.