The Bison Principle: Clarity, Discipline, and Courage in Local Government-Through the Lens of Parks and Recreation

Local governments across the country are facing a quiet but mounting challenge. Expectations continue to grow while revenues fluctuate, infrastructure ages, and deferred obligations accumulate. Leaders are asked to deliver more for their communities even as the fiscal realities beneath the surface become harder to ignore.

The Bison Principle is a call to lead with clarity, discipline, and courage.

Drawing on more than 20 years of field leadership and nearly two decades consulting with cities, counties, and special districts nationwide, Jamie Sabbach offers a candid and practical framework for confronting hard truths and making disciplined choices about public resources.

Written through the lens of parks and recreation-one of the most visible and widely valued services local governments provide-the book explores how quality-of-life services reveal deeper truths about leadership, priorities, and long-term responsibility.

Guided by the metaphor of bison running into the storm, fiscal responsibility is framed as an act of care and one that protects today's communities while strengthening tomorrow's.

Blending narrative, research, field experience, and strategic insight, The Bison Principle helps readers:

- Build shared clarity around purpose and priorities

- Apply the math that reveals what is sustainable and what is not

- Make transparent trade-offs rather than avoid them

- Strengthen trust through consistency and discipline

- Act decisively when the right decision is also the hardest one

This is not a book about doing more with less.

It is about doing what matters honestly, intentionally, and intelligently.

Whether you serve as a parks and recreation professional, city manager, elected official, consultant, board member, or engaged resident, The Bison Principle offers a path toward stronger decisions and communities that endure.