When you are attending city council meetings – you do attend, don’t you? – you should be asking yourself one question on each discussion the sitting members have on any topic.
Does this individual have a clear vision of what he/she wants to accomplish for the city and does that vision include input from constituents?
There is a ton of old, ugly baggage following the city around. Law suits, bad hires, questionable decisions by managers and employees. The council, who work for us, has got to turn the page.
I don’t mean sweeping the baggage under the rug. All that does is create a lumpy rug. It needs to be attended to, owned up to, and procedures and policies put in place – or the ones in place used – to make sure those mistakes aren’t repeated. Learn from the mistakes and move ahead.
It is perfectly OK if council person A and council person B disagree – civilly – with one another on where they believe the city should go. It’s fine if A thinks an amusement park is the way to go and B wants to build a data center. It’s OK to disagree, within reason.
But for A to do everything in the book – and make up a few plays along the way – to derail any idea that comes from B, just because they don’t like B, or carry a grudge from elementary school – that is childish, counterproductive and just flat stupid. It’s obstructionism at its finest.
No one was elected to grind their axe on the city council, using up the citizens’ time and the city’s resources.
Any council member who thinks they are being called out by the newspaper should consider why they feel that way. Guilt? Hubris?
They should also take a good look at what is in the best interest of the city. Stop spinning the wheels because all that does is sling mud, and believe me, there has been enough dirt slung on this town to last several decades.
And if they don’t have any goals or ideas for making the town better, and representing the residents, maybe being a city council member isn’t an appropriate avocation for them.