Regarding the recent letter about the Bellevue Essential’s class, I do not want to pay city employees or big government for this inappropriate and conflict of interest situation to recruit future citizen leaders, molded or selected toward a certain bent.

Citizen leaders usually arise due to special needs of their neighborhood and often due to poor response from local government. We do not need mouthpieces of present dominance.

City staff has said the first Essentials graduates have applied or been selected to local city commissions. These commissions have potential political input.

An example is the Downtown Residents Association. Citizen run? I don’t think so. City sends out meeting and event emails. Sound like independent citizen group to you? What a sneaky typical government technique – staff has direct contact to the 10,000 residential population downtown, most of whom are voting age – enough votes to easily sway an election.

City government is no place to recruit and sway/train citizens to be active in our local government.

Janet Nelson, Bellevue