By Jim Sack

Fort Wayne will miss Greg Purcell. He is a capable administrator, a relatively skilled politician and a nice guy, really.

Politics is a fight in Fort Wayne. There are plenty of interests, there are Machiavellian twists and turns, there are those who play both sides against the middle. It is a fight to get something done, it is a challenge to determine a policy, outline the actions that will be needed for success and then push the project through the various votes to make it law. Greg Purcell did a relatively good job of implementing his mayor’s wishes. He is courteous, friendly and does not seem to hold a grudge. A nice guy, a calculating politician.

The deputy mayor is Fort Wayne is the chief of staff, the principle advisory, the privy counselor, the head cheerleader and, on occasion, the last word on city policy. The mayor is allowed to be the eminence gris, the wise thinker who conjures ideas and hands them to the deputy mayor to execute policy while he, the burgermeister, cuts ribbons, masks speeches and kisses babies. It was a relationship created with the effervescent Graham Richard in mind, not Tom Henry. To be clear, the current mayor is gifted at cutting ribbons and reading stories to grade-schoolers, it is that visioning thing that is the challenge.

So, those of us who have opposed Greg Purcell have been impressed with his skills to get things done, ruefully so at times. That is why he will be missed. He has been able to sell administration policy and assemble the votes on council to push through his mayor’s agenda. But he has also been part and parcel of the various troubles the Henry Administration has brought on itself: the casino double-dealing, the waste on Calhoun, the bungled negotiations with I&M, the burgeoning bill to buy a new city hall, and more. Just last week the revelation of so much apparent corruption in the Mayor’s contributor list has to make one ask whether the mayor’s chief advisor offered noble counsel. He is in the position to be the mayor’s chief wise counsel, as well as the tough insider, the guy who might occasionally display sharpened elbows.

Other mayors have had their Machiavellians; David Kiester comes first to mind. During his tenures with Mayors Ivan Lebamoff and Win Moses it was joked that he, Mr. Kiester, would kill his grandmother for a vote. Those making that joke would look just a bit over their shoulders when sneering that insult. I had both good and bad experiences with Mr. Kiester, at times he served the community exceedingly well, at other times not so well as an earlier version of a deputy mayor. Every mayor has had one, the question is how well they serve.

Purcell was hired to advise the mayor, to take over in illness or absence, to be the number two. He was hired for his wise counsel and potentially sharp elbows.

And, this is, afterall, Fort Wayne. We are a middle sized community living in comfortable mediocrity. We attract middle-quality administrators. Greg Purcell has, over three administrations, been consistently good for the city, but not great. One would expect the number two in government would speak truth to power and would resign if even the appearance of impropriety were exhibited by his boss. Unfortunately, given the big contributors list and the “pay-to-play” image it creates, and the appearance that the administrations plays favorites at taxpayer expense it does not seem that Mr. Purcell was strong enough in that part of his duties, or willing to draw a line in the sand against the image of corruption now surrounding Mayor Henry. But, then again, perhaps that is what he has done, in his normally less confrontation way.

The baton now passes to Controller Pat Roller. Let us see how tough she is.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 10:12 am and is filed under City & County Government, Fort Wayne. 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.