Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Akron Recall: A Mayor Knows

Why did fifteen local mayors from both parties draft a letter condemning Akron's recall process? Mayors are by necessity pragmatic people.  They know that managing a city or village requires a balance of long term vision and "up in your grill" micromanagement.  At times the latter can win out to the detriment of the vision thing.


Good mayors get things done. There was a campaign a few years ago that touted this axiom.  The bus tour in support of Ohio's big cities enlisted mayors from large cities including Don Plusquellic.  

Getting things done does not being sheepish or hanging out in the back of the room at conferences. At times brash behavior and bold statements are required to back up brash and bold new ideas.  A mayor on occasion may need to put decorum and congeniality aside to defend their city.  That's what Plusquellic has been doing for the better part of two decades in making the City of Akron the driving force of his career.  Has he offended people with harsh words and braggadocio?  He sure has.

Back to the letter from the gang of fifteen mayors.  The abuse of the recall process a la Warner Mendenhall is a threat to the continuity of leadership that good mayors provide.  What is disappointing is that Don Robart who is Plusquellic's Republican analog in Cuyahoga Falls refused to sign the letter.  The refusal to me is short sighted and was done with calculated partisan intent.  

Robart is in a similar position as Plusquellic.  He's been in office for two decades, has worked tirelessly for his city and has built a healthy list of detractors it the process.  So, why aren't there calls to remove the Mayor of CF from office?  Probably because the city has a sensible recall provision the city charter and nobody wants to waste time on recall effort unlike Akron.  You think the guy would be more empathetic to the other Don's plight.

Speaking of the charter in Akron.  The letter from the mayors recommends the action of an emergency charter review as a way of blocking the recall election.  This is not a goos idea.  AS much as I loathe the recall process the current charter is the legal guideline and has to be accepted as such for now.  Let's ride out this storm for now.  Once the dust settles the recall threshold can be changed to a more sane level. 

2 comments:

Warner Mendenhall said...

I see you want to remain a subject not a citizen. How can a recall process be abused? The Change Akron Now folks followed the rules and got this on the ballot. They are acting like citizens not subjects. Why is this so alarming to you and so many others?

fausto said...

I have a question. Why are you still pondering how a recall process can be abused? Hasn't this been demonstrated already? The charter rules were poorly conceived and the Change Akron members have capitalized on that weakness. Consider how much more serious the recall effort in Toledo has been even with the higher threshold in their respective charter.

Did I use the word alarming to reference the recall? If I did I actually meant annoying , aggravating and obnoxious. I have about 169,000 other adjectives to describe my thoughts on ill-begotten faux populist movements but I digress.