Having seen the intergovernmental task force on co-location today I much prefer sausage making.
At least with sausage making you can drink a nice German beer, say a Kostritzer from Gera, to dull the pain. There was no such option today. The meeting was comical at times, disappointing most of the time, disrespectful, inarticulate, confused, and oh yes, a mess.
The highly respected John Stafford chairs the task force and even as capable and articulate as he is the meeting got away from him quickly. The seating chart should have been a giveaway. One the left (literally, not figuratively) were Councilmen Tom Smith, Tim Pape and Mitch Harper. On the right (literally and figuratively) were County Council members Roy Buskirk, Paula Hughes and Paul Moss. In the middle (to their misfortune) were commissioners Linda Bloom and Nelson Peters, moderator Stafford and placed uncomfortably near Councilman Moss our fuming Mayor Tom Henry. (Bill Brown fortuitously had scheduled something else moons ago so he was spared the confusion and confrontation and pettiness.)
The seating chart demanded and got confrontation: in one corner, the city, on the other side the country, and the leadership stuck in the middle like so many puny referees, only Tom Henry decided to wade right into the middle.
Disrespectful can describe Mr. Pape, Mr. Moss, and Mr. Buskirk Mr. Pape started it by laughing at a comment by one of the County representatives. Moss took any number of personal shots at Mr. Pape. Mr. Buskirk gestured his applause when Mr. Pape said he was about to wrap up one of his many interminable soliloquies. Pape retaliated a number of times in Mr. Moss’ direction, by name. Disrespectful in all cases. Mr. Pape, wearing red, and Mr. Moss, dressed in various shades of mafia black, sparred for most of the two-hour marathon.
Befuddled is what comes to mind when describing the mayor. He could not seem to grasp a point early in the meeting that was presented and remade to him by three different people, each version an attempt to simplify the point so the mayor might final grasp it. He finally furled his brow and buried his nose in his notes. He never seemed to catch up. Later in meeting, when Councilman Mitch Harper offered the mayor a chance to show a measure of leadership the mayor fulminated into a tantrum about being dissed by others at the table. He verbally folded his arms over his chest and pouted, calling instead for postponement so tempers could cool. (His was the temper most frayed.) Then, trying to recover his leadership mantle again he threw the meeting into further confusion while thinking out loud whether he could spare a few thousand dollars after having offered millions at various stages of the meeting. The mayor, who should have been the biggest guy at the table looked more often like the smallest person in the group. During a vote on a key question only the mayor voted no, eight to one against him. He was clearly out of step with the group he had created.
Winners? Nelson Peters was very calm and offered humor. Paula Hughes tried to find common ground, even though her earlier quotes concerning mayoral offers were obviously hurtful to the mayor and part of the reason he was so testy. Linda Bloom barely spoke, but did add a few facts to clarify discussions. Silence was constructive.
And, oh yes, there were two architects who were there to explain co-location options to the assembled “leaders” and propose a way forward. Their comments were soon lost in the din.
So, finally, after two hours of snipes, hurt feelings, pouting and recriminations (Must See TV as one observer put it) the task force came to a decision: to pay the architects another $70,000 to “drill down” to a finer set of figures on moving various departments of city and county government to 200 East Berry/W&D’s/the Renaissance Building. And, they decided to find out exactly why the sheriff is not all that keen on being closer to the FWPD. (Drill Down. I hope I never again hear that overworked phrase.)
It was a mess. They barely, these leaders of our community, could arrive at decisions. The mayor almost took is ball and went home, just, just as consensus seemed to have been achieved. Pout. Aaaargh. Cooler heads prevailed.
Part of the blame goes to the format. The mayor and commissioners should be above all this petty bickering. Deputy Mayor Greg Purcell (oooops) and a chief of staff from the Commissioner, and reps from either council, should have hammered out the project. Sitting at the table the mayor should have leaned back in his chair and listened, instead he muddled things and embarrassed himself. One representative, other than Mr. Moss, would have been enough from the county, same from the city council. Just too many cooks and seated in a way that spelled, shouted, announced confrontation. Whoever designed the format, and I hope it was not the good and capable Mr. Stafford, should be sent to a group dynamics class.
I left the meeting and quickly went for a bratwurst and a beer, a Kostritzer from sister city Gera.
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If this weren't so sad, it would be hilarious. Where on earth does all this money come from? How can the The Maximum Supreme Mayor just pull $2.5 million out of his back pocket and slap the County in the face with it? But we can't maintain the police motorcycles because we don't have the money….
Why does every major project in this town start out at "just" $7 million, and then incrementally escalate to 10, 12, 14, 18, 24, 28 million – so large that even Tom Didier notices?
Why does no one step forward and LEAD? I guess we can assume it won't be Mayor Tom.
Jim, it sounds like the meeting you witnessed was a perfect storm of arrogance, ignorance, and a heaping helping of political acrimony. They probably should not show the video to potential bond buyers or companies wishing to relocate here.
Maybe things were better back in the day when things like this were done behind closed doors and if our elected officials pissed us off, we'd just punch them in the nose, or vote the bastards out.
Jim:
I said a while back this was gonna cost around $14 Mil…looks like that "guess" was a lot farther IN the (new) ballpark) than even I thought…LOL.
At least your day wasn't a TOTAL loss…you did get that Brat & Beer…!
Jim:
Your writing style seems to always focus on the foibles of meeting attendees, rather than the actual points of discussion at the meeting. With all due respect, I really could care less about Mayor Henry's tantrums and would like to read more about what was actually said.
Please do not take offense, because we all appreciate you efforts, but "I'm just sayin' . . ."
Mr. Fly. If this blog is your one and only source for news, may I make a well-intentioned suggestion that you scrape together some funds and buy a TV so you could have a well-groomed person read the newspaper to you? That way you could, perhaps, learn about the actual points covered at the meetings which you seem to desire.
Please don't take offense. I find Mr. Sack's comments useful and insightful as opposed to incite-full.
Gadfly,
While I understand the point you are trying to make (wanting more substance and less drama), I think, perhaps, that you fail to read between the lines here.
There certainly may be more to this story than was presented here by Mr. Sack, but my impression is that the majority of the attendees of this meeting themselves allowed drama to lead the day and that as a result there was little of substance to actually report on.
Jim, the facts that Linda Bloom added did not clarify anything. They were what set Mayor Henry off. The information of the County's ability to sell the six buildings and realize at least the $3 million, plus the knowledge that they had viable concrete information on the worth of the buildings is what caused Mayor Henry to abruptly ask for a "recess". That was the turning point in the discussion. That was where things really fell apart.
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl…
interesting link and a good explination why the loan offer was a bit …..well silly
Zeakster, thanks for the link.
Maybe this is a good time to consider changing Fort Wayne's government structure to a City Manager-Council arrangement. Our current "strong mayor" setup is rife with politics and play-for-pay. And Mayor Tom can not, in any sense of word, be viewed as a "strong" mayor. Strong-arm mayor, maybe…
A "City-Manager" replacing the Mayor position sounds like a great idea.
Oh, it started falling apart for the mayor when he set up the format. He an announced opponent in a position to upstage him, not to mention five or six other people who don't care much for his leadership. He had trouble understanding what was clearly explained to him, he lost his temper, he made proposals inconsistent with previous offers, it was just a mess…for Tom. He is a good guy, but he did not do well on our behalf at that meeting.