Back to Basics

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Colorado Municipal League (CML) is leading a statewide campaign through the 2025 CML President’s Back to Basics Initiative. This initiative aligns with CML’s mission to provide advocacy, information, and training support for exceptional municipal governance, with a specific focus on ensuring that good governance stands the test of time.

WHY IT MATTERS

Municipal government measures success not in headlines, soundbites, or clicks, but in working streetlights, safe streets, economic vitality, clean water, active parks, and balanced budgets — the fundamentals that keep communities strong, safe, and thriving. Between competing priorities, complex challenges, and the crisis of the day, local leaders and staff are pulled in many directions at once.

The 2025 Back to Basics initiative asks us to cut through the noise and refocus on what matters most: delivering the everyday fundamentals that make communities work.

B2B

 

“Let’s strip away the distractions and focus on doing the work that matters.

And if we get it right, we won’t just be leading our communities — we’ll be setting them up for success long after our time in office is done.”

— Wynetta Massey, 2024-2025 CML Executive Board president

Share your WHY for serving!

HOW CML ELEVATES THE FUNDAMENTALS

Workshops

Embedding the basics into every program

 

Tools

Developing pre-candidate guides and leveraging Civility Starts Here resources.

 

Peer Stories

Celebrating cities and towns that demonstrate foundational governance.

THE WORK

Delivering the essential services — clean water, well-maintained
streets and parks, economic vibrancy, and public safety — that keep communities functional and resilient.

 

 

The Trust

Governing transparently, ethically, and with accountability to the Rules of Law.

THE PEOPLE

Leading with civility, collaboration, commitment to service, and
remembering why we serve.

YOUR TURN: LEAD THE SHIFT

REFLECT


Assess whether your processes and decisions stay focused on the fundamentals. Do they build trust within the community?

Engage


Share your story of why you serve at your next public meeting. Submit your story to CML to share with your peers through this online form or by emailing it to dwhite@cml.org.

AMPLIFY


Keep the fundamentals at the forefront of discussions. When conversations or decisions seem to stray, ground the dialogue by asking, “How does this serve our community?”