Bokhari: Asking the right questions

Editor’s Note: Charlotte City Council swore in its newly elected members Sept. 6. Council Member Tariq Bokhari gave these remarks after thanking his supporters. 

The questions that we decide to ask and that we attempt to answer are really what makes the difference between a good city and a great city.

And in my opinion, the biggest success we’ve had in the last five years – something the vast majority of people have not and will never hear it – horizontal integration. 

We sat down five years ago and asked a very simple question: How can we become a more effective government? And instead of operating in these vertical silos like affordable housing or transportation, can we overhaul the organization to operate in horizontal outcomes focusing on economic growth or upward mobility across all departments, across all functions? 

That is a huge win that no one will hear about but the future decades will benefit from that restructuring.

We don’t have unlimited resources, so the questions we choose to ask are everything as we move forward. And what we have to decide as a new body is, what questions are we going to ask over the next year, year and a half? 

I think that there are some amazing opportunities for us as a group. 

We recruited and retained over 50,000 jobs in the last five years – 50,000 to the city. How can we make that 100,000 over the next five years? 

These are the size and scope questions we should be asking.

How can we drastically and measurably reduce crime, improve officer retention and morale? How can we anticipate what city infrastructure looks like 20 years from now and then get there 10 years before anybody else does? 

I’m excited. I’m hopeful for this next term. We need to ask the right questions. 

Tariq Bokhari serves as District 6 representative on the Charlotte City Council.