Being mayor means dealing with issues of local citizens

Student Avarie Knight meets with Mayor Rich Sykes during a recent meeting at city hall.

Mayor Rich Sykes has responsibilities every day that he needs to tackle to keep the citizens of Mountain Home in good hands. It often means dealing with all types of complaints, usually every day.

"You name a complaint, I’ve heard it," Sykes said.

No matter what he does, the mayor admits that he can't make everyone like him, nor can he make everyone happy.

"You got to have really thick skin to be mayor," he said. "If (for example) I say, 'Hey, I am going to give the citizens $1 million dollars, they are going to say, 'Where did the mayor get that money?"

Looking back on his first year as the mayor, he said it's very stressful having to deal with these types of critics. No matter how hard he tries, some people will just look at the negative side.

Being mayor sometimes means doing what's needed to keep the citizens safe and in good hands while maintaining the public's trust.

"My rule is, the number one responsibility of being a mayor is protecting all the citizens and people inside the city limits," Sykes said.

This is his rule, and it isn't necessarily one the mayors of other communities have as their top priority, he said. However, Sykes said he's very passionate about this rule.

The people within the city's limits are those people he can directly help. The people that live outside the city boundaries turn to the county commissioners when they need help.

When someone becomes mayor, it sometimes means having to make personal sacrifices. One of the biggest he faced was dealing with a issue that cost him a friendship, which he admitted was a significant sacrifice.

It was something that showed that being mayor isn't easy, he said.

Becoming mayor comes with a number of responsibilities. The city needs to stay within a set budget while ensuring each city department has what it needs, from covering worker salaries to maintaining or replacing equipment and vehicles.

According to Sykes, when someone is mayor, they are not going to be perfect, and they will have similar problems as any other person.

"Making sure that the platform that I ran on as being mayor was bringing economic stimulus jobs. That is what I want to work on," said Sykes regarding his plan to boost the local economy by helping bring needed jobs to this community.

At the same time, being mayor means dealing with problems, all of which need to be tackled. This means being responsible for solving those problems.

Among those issues is water, which in southern Idaho comes in short supply, he said.

"We do not have a water shortage problem; we have a water storage problem," Sykes said.

Simply put, the city can have all of its wells pumping water during the peak time each summer. Even with these wells pumping out water, it still runs the city's water storage tanks dry, which can run close to empty when the demand for water is the highest.

This is just one example of how being mayor means dealing with difficulties. And when problems don't get resolved, it turns into complaints.

But that's not always the case. Sykes said he gets to deal with common sense problems that are usually not that big of a deal. Many times, these are problems that people should be able to solve themselves.

"I do deal with lots of complaints," he said. "You know (complaints like), 'my neighbor's weeds are too tall' or 'my streets aren’t shoveled,' " he said. "You name a complaint, I’ve heard it."