Jim Golato would also like to carry on his family's tradition. His father, Al Golato, is a former city councilman and school board chairman. "I want to carry on as a city councilperson in the tradition of Councilman Jenkins and before him my father," Golato told the Blade-News. "They were both councilpersons of integrity who listened to the citizens, represented their interests and protected with their utmost ability the quality of life that attracted people to Bowie.
Golato has experience on city committees, including a current term on the Bowie Advisory Planning Board and prior experience on the city's first Economic Development Committee, active from 1986 to the early 1990s.
James A. Golato is a candidate for Bowie City Councilman for District 2. He is a hard-working civic activist who is well aware of the problems confronting Bowie and fully equipped by education, ability, experience and temperament to develop sound, realistic solutions to them. I know, because we have been close friends for over 30 years.
He pledges his support for those programs and projects that will keep Bowie the kind of suburban community most of us hoped it would be when we moved here.
Jim told me "many of the things I stand for have already been started or achieved by the Bowie City Council when my father Al Golato served as District 2 city councilman long ago and more recently Jack Jenkins who will soon retire. I want to follow in the footsteps of their devoted, sound and ethical service in the development of the Bowie most of us have come to love."
Jim intends to articulate specific issues towards maintaining the good and solving the problems he sees, or are brought to his attention by the people of Bowie, during the upcoming campaign.
I urge all voters in Bowie who want progress and improvement through ethical government performance while retaining the city's small town feeling and environment to vote for James A. Golato for District 2.
Mark Galloway
Bowie
August 9, 2007
Golato addresses issues that he believes affect the city's quality of life. "The issues that have a great and direct impact on each resident and are within the scope of the City Council's authority are crime, transportation, overdevelopment and conservation" he said.
"Transportation is becoming more important as our city grows without limits and our streets begin to swell with increased traffic," said Golato. "We have enlarged roads that cut through our neighborhoods to move traffic through the city, but that is not having any effect on reducing traffic. It has really helped increase the city's pass-through traffic."
He would like the city to either create a city-owned transit serve or have a cooperatively operated and funded service among the city and the local businesses or create incentives to encourage a privately run transit system.
As far as crime is concerned, Golato said, “creating a police department is a good first step to reducing crime.” He also would like to see measurable objectives for the new police department and an interactive relationship between them and the citizens of Bowie.
I would like to thank publicly the editor of the Blade-News, John Rouse, for writing such kind things about me in last week's newspaper. Of all the candidates he mentioned, and he mentioned all of them, he singled me out as the one he sees as representing traditional values. I take that as quite a compliment. For what that means to me is that it comes through in my actions and my words.
In this day and age many people of my generation have entered business, industry and politics and we see what is happening around us when they abandon traditional values. I stick to traditional values that we hold as good, true and dear. Traditions are history. Without traditions we neglect history and we will repeat the mistakes of the past. However, like many of my generation, I do have a modern outlook, too.
As we learn from history, we should use modern approaches to correct the errors of the past. So, yes, I do possess a modern outlook gathered from my many experiences and advanced education as well as a respect for traditional values, for which I would like to thank Mr. Rouse for recognizing.
Mr. Rouse, you said in last week's issue that I favor traditional values and you wondered what those words mean. As a matter of fact they mean what you and Aunt Agatha often yearn for in your nostalgic comparisons of many things in Bowie, such as: election campaigns that were run with family and friends and neighbors and a few hundred dollars that now take thousands of dollars and the hiring of out-of-town "managers"; some of our elected officials who want to permit campaign donations from corporations; the small-town feelings that attracted people to live in Bowie and which are now fading away as we get bigger with annexations, crime, traffic gridlock, unnecessary strip shopping centers and overdevelopment to use up every bit of our remaining green space. And let's not forget our schools which used to be the envy of the rest of the county school system and our currently endangered health center which was established mainly by voluntary action of our dedicated citizens. I could go on but I think I've made my point.
Mr. Rouse we both agree with what traditional values are, especially as specifically applied to Bowie.
JAMES A. GOLATO
City Council Candidate
District 2
Published 09/20/07, Copyright © 2007 The Bowie Blade-News
