The Observation Deck

With Council President Seelie leaving and two of our most senior councilmen, Fitzgerald and Demro also not being on council come January, it is interesting to speculate who will be the new president of council.

The way I see it is we have 4 members who have some experience - so I think it will be one of them. In order of seniority they are, Michael Dever, Mary Louise Madigan, and then tied for seniority are Kevin Butler and Nickie Antonio.

Who do you think will be selected? - it isn't our decision - but it should be interesting.

I think Nikkie would do a great job!

Kevin Butler

I agree with Ivor. I'd like to see Butler get it.

Bryan,

I tried talking him into running for mayor, but it didn't work.

Shucks!

I like Kevin Butler... I think that he would be a great council president.

Butler. He's level headed and after this past election that's what we need.

I hope that whomever is elected as council president will not suspend public comment in council meetings during his or her tenure.

Lynn Farris wrote:With Council President Seelie leaving and two of our most senior councilmen, Fitzgerald and Demro also not being on council come January, it is interesting to speculate who will be the new president of council.

The way I see it is we have 4 members who have some experience - so I think it will be one of them. In order of seniority they are, Michael Dever, Mary Louise Madigan, and then tied for seniority are Kevin Butler and Nickie Antonio.

Who do you think will be selected? - it isn't our decision - but it should be interesting.

Lynn

It is more than seniority. With Bob, Ryan and Ed all leaving we loose three excellent choices.

Mike Dever was good when he stood in. I would also throw in Mike Summers, who is well versed in Roberts Rules, and has headed more committees and councils than I could ever count.

Not that the others would not, but one has experience, the other has Experience.

FWIW



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Jim O'Bryan gets my three votes.

I agree with you Jim - this isn't based on seniority - but usually having some experience serving at least 6 months in office is standard. And while Mr. Summers certainly has meeting experience - the city council is different from the School Board. So I would lean toward one of the other four.

But what makes a good council president?

1) Able to be fair to everyone - citizens - council members both for and against you.
2) Understand the rules of order
3) Organized
4) Having the time to do the job required.
5) Firmness to deal with problems
6) Respect of the citizens and your peers

What else do you think is important. For me #1 is critical.

And I would love to see this new council move public comments to the begining once again. I know the goal is to discourage public comment but council needs to respect that they wouldn't have a job without the citizens and they come to get their needs addressed and many of them have small children at home and shouldn't have to wait until 10:00 or even 11:00 to address council. JHMO.

Lynn

For what it is worth, I was not even thinking of School Board! I was thinking of all the other meetings both under Roberts rules and not! While Mike and I agree at best 50% of the time. He has aways been fair, always took the time to explain, and the man does his homework.

Or with the real independent Mike Dever, the only one that saw through the Lightspeed debacle, and mutiny. Has been on all sides with each member of council throughout the years, and is respected by Bullock and Summers, the new boys.

FWIW


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Lynn Farris wrote:
And I would love to see this new council move public comments to the begining once again. I know the goal is to discourage public comment but council needs to respect that they wouldn't have a job without the citizens and they come to get their needs addressed and many of them have small children at home and shouldn't have to wait until 10:00 or even 11:00 to address council. JHMO.

going back 10 years or so I recall that public comments came up as each docket item was discussed (obviously some items were moved up in the dockt if there council anticipated a lot of comment). I thought that worked better.

While I agree that its inconvenient to have to wait until 10 or 11 to make a comment, some of that is self-inflicted and not always the fault of council policies I have been to several council meetings where I heard dozens of people making essentially the same comment. Thats OK if your goal is to show council support for your position but it does make the meetings go on longer.

The next President of City Council needs to be someone who understands that business as usual is over. It needs to be someone who has a working knowledge of Robert's Rules. It needs to be someone who is fair and is willing to protect the integrity of the institution over political ties. It needs to be someone who understands that the internal workings of the group and the expectations of its members are dysfunctional given our situation. It needs to be someone with a fresh perspective who offers the ability to work with all members equally and to begin on the right foot.

I think there is one person who can do that. It was a person I did not support for election and frankly at times have found him to be so misguided with regard to the actual workings of City Council as to be condescending and naive.

I think that the President of City Council should be Mike Summers. Mike knows Robert's Rules, generally comes off as kind and caring, but firm enough to deal with some of the cranks who regularly attempt to delay the business of City Council. Mike also appears to be above the politics of it all. This is exactly the type of person that is going to be strong enough to steer a ship that will have a very heavy anchor in Nickie Antonio. She will try to defend every department, division, and job that will face the budgetary ax of the impending crisis. Her new county job will put even more pressure on her to save every job at city hall.

Despite Mike's past as Republican, he is now a Democrat, at least in name. So that will buy him the ridiculous credibility that I never received in council. This will allow him to make radical and necessary proposals that will be immediately considered without the necessary annoyances and oppposition that I received on a regular basis.

I am glad we are facing a budgetary crisis because it will now force the hand of council to deal with problems that it knew existed years ago. It can no longer play wait and see. The best part about it is that it will shrink the size of an already inefficient government. The sad part is that it will likely hurt those who are most vulnerable. Because many of the politicians, bureaucrats, and their political supporters have functioned in a state of denial for the last six years, the youth and elderly of our community will suffer. Expect the dismantling of Human Services. With proper planning and innovation we could have avoided this and yet here we are.

So Ryan, glad to know that you are irrelevant and so is anything you say.