Working for the Mayor

While I have been working in the City of Memphis Mayor's office for the past couple of months I have come to realize what the Mayor's office means to the city. The workers in the Mayor's office consist of so many different types of people with different backgrounds, focused on different projects and goals. It is even interesting to walk around the seventh floor of City Hall and look at each person's office. As I walk by each office I know that each individual is responsible for something completely different than the person in the office next to them. They may not even know what the other person is even working on. This very different for me than what I have experienced in a business office where everyone had idea of what the other was working on. Clearly by doing this, however, each person in the Mayor's office has been given a major amount of responsibility. They are responsible for the work of the Mayor and represent him and the city in everything they do. So while they are separate in their jobs, they are joined together by their common goals. While I do not know everyone in the Mayor's office and have no idea what the different titles are that exist with the Mayor's office, I can only assume that what they do is positive thing. The Mayor has countless responsibilities, especially in a city that is struggling like Memphis. Clearly things get pushed to the side for more important ones, like how the boards and commissions have over 100 vacancies. Some things need to wait. And while the Mayor has to take care of daily and miniscule jobs each week such as sit on panels and meet with the Consul of Argentina for whatever reason, important things are always on the table for the Mayor to be done. I would like to think he is repeatedly reminded of this everyday as the Occupy Memphis movement sits outside City Hall through rain and snow. Executive government in cities must continually be responsive to its citizens and the workers in the Mayor's office are doing their yes to do so. At least from what I can tell.