Dear Municipal Official:

”I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”

Our fellow citizens have honored us with the title ‘public servant.’ With their votes, they have given us the right to lead. As it should, that right entails awesome responsibilities. Sadly, some of us have, in the past, shirked those responsibilities. Inevitably, some of us will, in the future. Thankfully, the great and good majority of us will strive, day out, day in, to make the best choices and to do the right things.

We all have heard the critics. The best of us have even learned to listen to the criticisms. We appreciate our own limitations and to welcome the counsel, even of those who may wish us ill. The truth, though surely it does exist, is elusive—often imperfectly perceived—never conclusively captured—and, in the final analysis, the master, more than the servant, of any good party or man.

For those reasons, we owe it to each other as citizens, as well as public servants, to talk, to argue, to listen and to learn. I don’t possess the truth. But, from where I sit, I do perceive aspects of it, invisible to you. And you, from where you sit, see things that I can hardly imagine.

As New Jersey municipal officials, the League brings us together to promote that dialogue. And its Legislative Action program takes it a step beyond. It brings our common perspective to those other public servants, who practice the art of statesmanship in the Halls of the Statehouse in Trenton.

I encourage you to get involved in that dialogue and these pages will tell you how. A host of interests try to influence State decision-makers. Maybe not all of them have, as their primary focus, the greatest good for the people of our State. Your Legislators will hear from them. Shouldn’t they also hear from you?

Our fellow citizens have placed us “in the arena.” As we strive to serve their interests, we come to realize that the reward for trying to do your best is to be asked to do more. And as we enjoy the right to call ourselves public servants, we embrace the responsibility “to spend ourselves in a worthy cause.”

Please get involved, to the maximum extent that your other responsibilities allow, in the League’s Legislative efforts. Working together, we can help our fellow public servants to make the best of this Garden State and our time in its service.