Blow for blow, topic for topic, insult for insult, last night’s City Council meeting was the most interesting I have seen in the year that I have been following that august body.

For example: Karen Goldner all but called Mitch Harper a liar. Tom Smith challenged the rest of council to face the question of raising taxes or cutting services. Marty Bender again voted in favor of his own pay raise. Shoaff, Harper and Smith locked horns with Goldner and Pape on bonding cost; Pape presented a slide show noting how many tax dollars he had saved the community; Shoaff and Goldner said elected officials should not get pay increases, except Sandi Kennedy; Hines ridiculed Didier over the value of travel; Liz Brown concluded (politely for a change) the budget discussions; most members (except Marty Bender) discussed whether a pay raise was justified for city employees; Pape snapped at Mitch Harper; Brown and Pape sparred over the salary portion of the coming budget.

There was more, but so many topics were covered so quickly last night with such verve and occasional outburst that it was very hard to keep up. Given the anger, the outbursts the personal attacks, a good camera operator and a clever editor could have cut together a wonderful and thrilling trailer to promote city council on cable and in the theaters. It was a show.

Mitch Harper, in his normal subdued way, rebutted comments about bonding offered by Pape and Goldner. As he finished making his point Karen Goldner snorted that he had been “disingenuous” in his claims, and went on to challenge his point. Harper’s eye brow raised oh so little. He had been all but called a liar. A few minutes later, when his turn came around again, he reminded Ms. Goldner that the rules of the body require council members refrain from personal attacks. She had cross a fundamental line of procedure: criticize a fellow council member’s points but not the person. Ms. Goldner will find it hard to build those alliances in the future that are necessary to pass ordinances. She crossed a line. Harper’s eye brow was not the only one that raised during her outburst.

In that same discussion Tim Pape made a number of statements, one of which Mr. Harper corrected. But, he unfortunately interrupted Mr. Pape. Tim quickly challenged Harper’s source, his mistake, and Harper pointed out it was the city budget quoting page and line. Whew. Mistake. Pape yelled, “I have the floor” to his colleague. Since Mr. Harper sits next to Mr. Pape the bellowed retort suggested frustration, rather than a need to overcome great distance. Nerves were frayed. Other eyebrows raised. Marty looked down it his doodles.

The discussion of the budget last night centered on the pay raise, 1.5%, requested by the administration and a call by Mrs. Brown to double the employee contribution toward their health insurance. The discussion went back and forth. It is hard to tell who will vote one way of the other, except for Mrs. Brown and Mr. Pape. Liz Brown noted that the health care package enjoyed by city employees would be considered a “Cadillac Plan” under pending federal legislation. City employees pay 10% toward their insurance, whereas, according to Liz, 20% would be closer to national averages. She retorted that what was good 20 years ago has to be changed in light of diminishing revenues. Glynn Hines took a shot at her numbers. Lively. On a subsequent vote Marty Bender was one of only three members to vote “yea,” in essence in favor of his own pay raise, clearly a conflict of interest to which Marty seems either oblivious or content to flaunt.

Hines also jumped Tom Didier. Didier was the first to call for a wage freeze for city employees. He cited an article he had read in USA Today while he vacationed last week, missing a budget session, courtesy of a trip given him by his employer. Didier then called for a cut in the travel budgets, as well. Hines got the laugh of the night when he said that Didier’s employer probably should have cut out Tom’s travel budget as well. Hines then launched into a litany of why travel is useful for government officials. (Note: I set up a sister city program with Gera, Germany so officials could travel there to learn how the Germans combat crime, renew their cities, plan transit and develop their center cities.) Didier looked like a scolded Chihuahua, his eyes down and one paw tentatively raised in the air.

So, on it went. It was a very lively meeting. Shoaff, Smith and Harper reiterated their frustration with the “excessive use of the bonding” process. Harper noted that projects are repaid sometimes beyond the life of the work, Shoaff added that bonding interest costs are around 80 cents over and above for each dollar bonded. Smith suggested that more pay as we go should be the norm. Harper agreed and suggested the bonding costs come out of taxpayer pockets and can be avoided. Pape defended the bonding process by equating it to buying a house and borrowing. That argument went back and forth for a few minutes. Lively. And so the gentile brawl went on for two hours.

Next time, I will bring a camera. With a cracker-jack editor this could displace House.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 3:13 pm and is filed under City & County Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.