When I launched my campaign, I told people my reason was simple: I love my city, and I want it to be the best it can be. When I looked around and saw where our city had been, where it was, and where it was heading, I knew there had to be a better way. When I looked at the people sitting on the dais at the Council meetings, I realized none of them looked or sounded like me.  It was no wonder their decisions weren’t reflecting my concerns.  I was focused on the future, and they were clearly stuck in the past.  Why aren’t we planning for the future, I wondered? Where is the vision?

Someone should do something, I said. And as the saying goes, if not you, then who? I had plenty of answers to that—or rather a lot of “buts:”

• But I have no experience with this. 
• But I don’t know anything about being a city councilmember. 
• But there must be more qualified candidates. 

The list goes on, but you get the drift. 

I once heard my friend and fellow councilmember Ken Cummings say, “God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called.”  That really resonated with me—then and now.  Public service is a calling. And the only qualification is a commitment to your city or town and a desire to influence its future. Everything else can be learned on the job. Trust me: if you can see the needed change, you can be the needed change.

Jenn Hulehan, 
Member, Simpsonville City Council