Comments on: The Mayor Makes Sausage

By: Jim Sack

Jim Sack — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:41:56 +0000

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.

By: Mike H.

Mike H. — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:40:29 +0000

A "City-Manager" replacing the Mayor position sounds like a great idea.

By: DouglasB

DouglasB — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:56:13 +0000

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…

By: zeakster

zeakster — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:57:15 +0000

http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl…

interesting link and a good explination why the loan offer was a bit …..well silly

By: Stephen Parker

Stephen Parker — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:34:34 +0000

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.

By: Anthony Wayne

Anthony Wayne — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:30:57 +0000

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.

By: DouglasB

DouglasB — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:23:36 +0000

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.

By: gad_fly

gad_fly — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:04:38 +0000

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' . . ."

By: Bob G.

Bob G. — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:38:04 +0000

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…!

By: DouglasB

DouglasB — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:33:19 +0000

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.