funkhouser gets funky again

Mayor Mark Funkhouser delivered his state of the city address on Sunday at All Souls Unitarian Church once again reaffirming his undying devotion for his wife Gloria, his willingness to be smart with the money, and proposing that 'televised' meetings with council members be televised. Ummm...m.o.i thinks we already have weekly televised meetings with the mayor and council; they are known as the legislative session and can be viewed on Channel 2 or your desktop.

This address echoed similar tones from last year's address. His Mayorship suggested that in the past he had let others set the tone of the conversation and that - no longer! he's going to fight back and work to drive the conversation -- which in reality, in our city-manager form of government -- is the job of the mayor. To lead the city.

There is some validity in the mayor's assessment of folks crying foul when in fact they are fowl. Plenty of knuckleheads have been quick to bash the mayor without listening first. But the Mayor should be taking the blame, as the leader, and then insuring that the city moves forward on the proper agenda. The problem, has, is, and continues to be that the public and probably more importantly at this point, the City Council, doesn't perceive the Mayor as being conciliatory. And calling the dogs on the carpet in the state-of-the-city addresss doesn't help. In reality, it just reaffirms that he's not that conciliatory and ready to move on to bigger issues, i.e. the business of the city.

Stubbornness can be a virtue, until one becomes intractable, then it's a liability. It's easy to be stubborn when you're racking up political victories, except the last major political victory the Mayor scored was his election. That was 2 years ago. The Mayor complained bitterly that the previous mayor never listened to its constituents and the funny thing about this Mayor, is that he's in danger of becoming his own worse enemy. If the Mayor really wants to get jiggy wid' it, he needs to do more than wear an orange tie.