Commenter Rex Kramer asks, regarding City Manager Tommy Gonzalez’ $61,000 raise, “Who really pulls the strings?”
Wouldn’t it be kind of comforting to think that there was some mastermind behind the machinations of City Council? Wouldn’t it be comforting to think that someone had a plan? Any plan. Any plan at all.
Do you think someone convinced City Council to give the City Manager a raise to get him to play ball? Maybe to rush through some ill-advised Quality of Life projects? Or to stall them? Or is it hush money? Has Mr. Gonzalez discovered where the bodies are buried? Does he have a sex video of the annual City Council Christmas orgy?
(Try to bleach that image from your mind’s eye.)
I’m convinced, at least for now, that City Council really is as clueless at they seem. They’re bumbling around in the dark, bumping into furniture and mistaking it for an idea.
Instead of an armada, steaming towards a secret destination, there’s just a flotilla of life rafts, bobbing around in a sea of uncertainty, leaking like sieves, futilely bailing to stay afloat.
God help us all.
I really like your metaphors and analogies! And, I suspect you are also correct in your thinking that these clowns are just bumbling fools, entirely leaderless (’cause we no longer have a “Strong” Mayor form of local government), and without any original thoughts of their own.