Another idea the city administration says it will soon present is an "action plan" to deal with the city's shrinking population. The plan, as described to the City Council in January, would attract 15,000 new residents. It seems the administration and the City Council would first want to know why the city's population is shrinking and take a close look at the demographics. The first responsibility our elected officials have is to maintain faith with the current residents who bear the tax burden, especially the elderly who contributed so much to make this a great city. While we talk diversity, the unintended consequence of wanting to bring in new residents and student housing is to ignore the needs of the elderly on fixed incomes and young families who cannot afford to live in the city and the reason for school closures.

The good news about our city is we have an administration that is passionate about issues affecting our society and has a multitude of ideas to bring about change. The bad news is, as with many who care deeply about things, the administration seems to lack the patience to involve people in identifying the problems they face, listening to the people and inviting them to help seek solutions that work for them.

That takes time. It requires setting a tone of trust and demonstrating, by example, deep respect and belief in the value of every individual. This administration, unfortunately, has set a tone of confrontation, believing that will force people to talk and accept ideas. On the contrary, the human reaction, when attacked, is to become defensive and stop listening. Leaders have the responsibility to create an environment where people can feel free to contribute solutions and ask that their leaders be accountable without fear of being intimidated or discounted.

On the other hand, citizens must not be timid and let leaders have a misperception that they are beyond reproach or too rigid to learn from others. If our city is to continue to be the place we talk about, it will take time; every day each of us must practice, by our actions, the values we hold so dearly and which made this a very special city we all enjoy.

We all have so much we can learn from each other if only we live our values rather than talking about them.

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Utah native John Florez has founded several Hispanic civil rights organizations, served on the staff of Sen. Orrin Hatch and on more than 45 state, local and volunteer boards. He also has been deputy assistant secretary of labor. E-mail: jdflorez@comcast.net