No, I’m not forecasting the Age of Aquarius. I’m running for the Jefferson County Commission.

Thank you all for the opportunity and your permission to serve you in the House of Delegates for 25 years out of the last 39. I have one more year to serve in that capacity.

But I believe a change on the local level is urgently needed.

In my view, our county commission has abdicated its responsibility to do the work the people elected the members to do, to allow the people to have a sufficient say in that work, and even to allow the people to know what work is being done.

The commission allows public input, only after decisions are already made. It revised the zoning ordinance without revising the master plan (and without holding the public hearings required prior to revising that master plan). It appoints members of public boards, without even requiring applications to be submitted properly. And it arbitrarily dismisses seasoned and competent appointed officials, with no explanation to the public.

A public office is a public trust, which is why many people with whom I’ve talked are appalled by the commission’s actions. Our county government isn’t trusted. The people desire and deserve transparency and accountability.

I think we need to stop chasing smokestacks for economic development. We have wonderful opportunities for development in agriculture and tourism, and too many smokestacks will interfere with those opportunities. Plus, smokestack businesses almost always want outrageous tax breaks to locate somewhere.

And I think a brand new opportunity will present itself in the next few years, an opportunity that I fear might also die, should we get more smokestacks. That’s an opportunity for more office work.

Many office workers who began working at home last year want to stay there. That’s particularly true of folks who live in Jefferson County and commute long ways to work. But many employers would like them back in the office, at least more frequently than they’re there now.

But what if their office jobs were here in Jefferson County?

When Amazon is fully functioning in Crystal City, the cost of office space will escalate dramatically, and it’s already much higher than the cost of office space in Jefferson County. I think we can recruit some companies now, based near the D.C. Beltway in Maryland and Virginia, to locate some of their jobs in our county. This is particularly true of Virginia, since that state has indicated it will never make Virginia Route 9 four-lane all the way to Route 7.

To those who say “it can’t be done,” I say, “we haven’t tried.”

Finally, I think we should consider making the terms of county commissioners four years instead of the present six. I think six is too long, and there is a procedure by which we can ask the voters of our county to reduce those terms of office to four years, should they wish.

After working for many years, trying to solve our state’s problems, I’m eager to work to solve some of our county’s problems.

John Doyle is a delegate for the West Virginia District 67. He can be reached at johndoyle@wvhouse.gov.