Spotsylvania Courthouse VA
1-06-2026 10:02am

Public Agenda: Insights and Analysis on Public Service and the People Governing After the Applause: A New Year’s Charge to Elected Officials and the People They Serve

By Dr Shellie Bowman Sr. 

As a new year begins, I want to start where public leadership must always begin. With the people.

To the readers of Public Agenda, I wish you a Happy New Year and much success in 2026. Your engagement, your questions, and your insistence on accountability are the reasons this space exists. Public Agenda is not simply a commentary platform. It is a civic resource, and it is growing because the public is demanding seriousness from those entrusted with power.

January marks a familiar ritual in American governance. Newly elected officials are sworn into office, often on the strength of campaign promises, donor support, and the tireless work of volunteers and constituents who believed change was possible. The oath is taken. The applause fades. Then the real work begins.

This is the moment when governance either rises to its obligation or quietly drifts away from it.

From the perspective of public administration, this transition period is one of the most consequential and least discussed phases of democratic life. It is where ethical governance is tested, not in rhetoric, but in restraint. Not in promises, but in practice.

If you want to read the rest of the article go to read the article and look the archives of the previous articles Dr Shellie Bowman has written for The Public Agenda. 

https://open.substack.com/pub/drshellieb/p/governing-after-the-applause…

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