Wayne Balmer, long-time planning director for Queen Creek, sent Rose Law Group Reporter the following letter announcing his retirement this week:
Yes, the day has finally come – and it’s this Thursday.
Before I go, however, I wanted to write all the folks I have worked with over the years to thank you for cooperation and support. I have greatly appreciated your assistance.
My goal in being the Planning Administrator has been to make Queen Creek a better place – not only for now – but also for 20 years from now – so Queen Creek will continue to be a place people are proud to call home.
I think that same goal drives everyone in the planning and development business, to make the community a better place.
My mentor when I worked for the City of Mesa was a fellow named Howard Godfrey. When he retired he gave me a plaque that had hung in his office for all the years I had known him. He used to refer to it when the going got tough, as it sometimes does in planning, and told me “Wayne, that’s what we’re here to do.” It describes the “Athenian Oath” which is said to have been taken in ancient Greece by those who wanted to become citizens of Athens.
So now, in our new electronic age, I am sharing the attached copy with you.
If you would like to pass the Oath on to someone you think might be interested, please feel free to do so. If a hundred people send it to a hundred people, and they send it to a hundred people – before long everyone involved in planning and development will have a copy….
I wish you all well in the future – and maybe our paths will cross again some day…
Best regards
The Athenian Oath
“We will never bring disgrace to this our City by any act of dishonesty or cowardice, nor ever desert our suffering comrades in the ranks, we will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the City, both alone and with many; we will revere and obey the City’s laws and do our best to incite to a like respect and reverence those who are prone to annul or set them at naught; we will strive unceasingly to quicken the public’s sense of public duty; that thus, in all these ways, WE WILL TRANSMIT THIS CITY, NOT ONLY NOT LESS, BUT GREATER, BETTER AND MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN IT WAS TRANSMITTED TO US.”
