EDITORIAL: This is how a leader plays ball

Negatives may attract attention, but positives win the day.

So let’s look at one of the region’s top positives. It’s a he, and he’s a leader — the real deal, not one of the elected officials currently embarrassing themselves and confounding their constituents.

This positive stands about 6 feet 3. He sports a head devoid of hair, which certain editorial writers might consider commendable. He’s a world-class father, grandfather, husband, friend and, yes, elected official.

He’s Mayor Ron Jacobson, named Post Falls Citizen of the Year by the PF Chamber of Commerce.

With so many examples of how not to lead currently in positions of leadership — hello, North Idaho College — Jacobson is the polar opposite. He’s in a select group of local men and women who do things right. And it’s interesting how those who do things right are so infrequently the centers of attention.

In Jacobson’s case, the former basketball standout has a point guard mentality: His game is to ignore self-serving stats and instead, do everything he can to make his teammates better.

Objective analysis shows Post Falls is one of Idaho’s best-run cities, with low taxes and outstanding public service. That’s a testament to the mayor’s ability to bring out the best in the city’s employees and volunteers.

When Jacobson says he’ll do something, consider it done. Simple as that sounds, there is no better indication of a person’s integrity and self-discipline than that.

If Ron says he doesn’t know the answer to an important question — another sign of maturity and honesty — you can bet he’ll come back better informed, which leads to better decisions.

Want a shouter, a fist-pounder proficient in the art of angertainment? That’s not Ron. Through his decades of public service at many levels, his even temperament has been a hallmark. When’s the last time anybody heard Jacobson so much as raise his voice — unless it was to cheer someone on?

Here’s a testament to Mayor Jacobson’s almost universal appeal: He has been wholeheartedly endorsed by the Coeur d’Alene Press and by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, two entities that see eye to eye on very little.

Now 67 and recently retired from the banking industry, Jacobson continues to serve his community so effectively that his positive influence is felt throughout the entire region. Younger, aspiring leaders would do well to emulate him, and we’d be willing to bet that he’d like nothing better than to help them.

Because that’s what the best point guards do.