Fitzgerald is a good man and was a good Mayor.
I won't go back and look it all up but:
Total number of City employees went from something like 800 during the Cain years to the current level of 550 or so. Some of the decline started during the George years but the bulk of the decline came during the Fitzgerald term.
Expenditures were about $38 million per year during the George years and declined to about $34 million or so last year.
He left the City on a sound financial footing. Good stewardship by Sumers built on that success.
If Fitzgerald had followed that path at the County level and ran for governor in 2018 he would have won in a walk. (Assuming he got his valid drivers license by then)
Instead he signed on to the downtown Disneyland economic model that is doing so much damage to the region.
And ...
He ignored his hometown. Whenever any other area of the State elects one of its own the newly elected official works overtime to secure some benefit for the people that got him started. Someone said Fitzgerald didn't want to "play favorites". When is the last time you ever heard of any politician of any political party at any time say he couldn't help his supporters because that would be "playing favorites"?
Generally things are looking up for Lakewood, at least in the short term. However, the whole glass menagerie is very fragile. Anyone want to talk about armed robbery?
