The fallout from the Mary Suhm gas-drilling briefing that took place last week was heartening, even if the event itself was less than.
For one, the paper of record finally agreed that Suhm could be criticized and the sky would not fall. In a straightforward, dead-on editorial, the Dallas Morning News said that the City Council was remiss for not taking seriously its oversight role. As the paper put it:
Granted, it was naïve. What in the world gave the paper the thought that council members would dare stand up to Mother Hen? As we’ve all acknowledged, this deal is going to go through, largely because Suhm promised it would. They don’t want any more discussion (read: public culpability) of the parkland gas-drilling arrangement than is necessary.
But Jim Schutze on Friday nailed the real takeaway from this: It shows just how weak our mayor is. Not Mike Rawlings specifically — he’s aw-ite — but the mayor’s office.
Schutze (channeling Hunt) points out that the system is set up to blame no one when something like this happens. The city manager is just a public servant, not an elected official, so she can’t be to blame, right? The mayor doesn’t have any more authority than a council member. And the council members are beholden to their districts first, not responsible for the city at-large.
My friends make fun of me because, after only living in Atlanta for a year, they say I bring it up all the time to point out how worldly I’ve become. (“Well, in Atlanta, we have high-class pimento cheese on every menu. And we’ve been drinking whisky sours for years.”) But it’s true that the strong-mayor system there is a stark contrast to our governing structure.
Kasim Reed is a youngish, ambitious politician elected in 2010 to lead Atlanta. In just the year I was there, he completed a series of bold moves that infuriated his critics: reduced city pension to pay for police, pushed out the nationally revered head of the housing authority to install a crony, maneuvered for new airport contracts to be awarded to vendors, hired and fired staff with no explanation.
This is just a sampling. True, his strong-arming outraged many people, including a columnist at the paper where I worked. I published columns calling him a Chicago-style boss, someone who was consolidating power by running out his enemies and installing his cohorts in positions of authority across the city.
You know what? He was! You know what else? It was awesome!
There was one person to blame or get credit. More to the point, things got done, so long as pesky public votes didn’t stand in the way. We first heard more than a year ago that a new downtown Falcons stadium was in the works. There was predictable opposition (including from me, and my paper). But it was accepted it would eventually come to pass, because Reed was behind it. This month, the deal should be finalized.
I have to tell you, I loved living in a city with a mayor who had real power. It provided the media focus, the people someone to love or hate, and a politician who had to stand up and take the heat. If that someday happens here, and we can point to last week’s debacle as a seed crystal, then it was worth it.
Elsewhere
Nothing new in the Craig Watkins piece the DMN ran Sunday. If you’re looking for a takeaway, one person who accurately sums up what all his troubles mean for his reelection bid, you have to look to the very end, where a local political talking head suggests “most people would say that Watkins generally has done a good job and is interested in making sure that the innocent don’t get prosecuted” — but that he also has “made some missteps.” That’s true. I’ll explain why tomorrow.
Kevin Sherrington with a great column that wonders if Nolan Ryan’s time at the Texas Rangers may be coming to an end. This should make you very afraid.
Retweets
If you’re not following Greg Abbott on Twitter, you’re missing our modern Matthew Harrison Brady. (Oh, Google it.)
“@texastribune: UT/TT Poll: In potential 2014 GOP TX gov primary, @governorperry leads @gregabbott_tx, 49%-17%.trib.it/12mCktx”
— Emily Ramshaw (@eramshaw) March 4, 2013Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has made enemies, mostly because he has the authority to actually get things done. Sounds glorious, right?
