I asked someone in city hall, who has been around for a long time, what they thought of the “new council” and after first pausing they said it was “average”. I laughed. That sums it up perfectly.
There’s no Todd Jarrell/Tom Powell/Brenda Konkel or Zach Brandon to shake things up. There’s no Austin King. There’s no Thuy Pham-Remmele. There’s no indication of what various alders will work on, or what agendas they want to accomplish. There’s no indication of what issues they think are important to work on beyond the budget and Scott Walker. It’s just completely, perfectly, boringly, average.
Nothing could point this out any more than the CCOC appointments. Seems like they will be falling all over themselves to be the most moderate. No left and right, no clear liberals and conservatives. No “progressives”. Just. painfully. average.
Council President Lauren Cnare put out the CCOC (Common Council Organizational Committee) appointments yesterday. They are as follows:
Alder Bruer
Alder Ellingson
Alder King
Alder Palm
Alder Schmidt
These three are named seats:
Alder Bidar-Sielaff
Alder Clear
Alder Cnare
What’s a blogger to do? There’s just not much to say. Of course, CCOC appointments in and of themselves are not very indicative of much. Some council presidents use this committee to be a sounding board for the council, some use it for the strictly operational items the council has to deal with and others don’t really use it at all. So what Cnare and Bidar-Sielaff use this committee for will be interesting to see, but one thing is clear. They, too, seem to think that these boring, “average” appointments reflect the cross-section of the council. And I kind of think they do.
Yawn. What is this new council going to do? What do they want to work on? Where will they lead the city? Who is going to emerge as leaders? Where is the excitement and action? I know its early and everyone is still trying to figure out the new Mayor and their new roles, but, um . . . if my blog is boring lately, this is why. Nothing is going on.
I love your page. As a former madosonian Co-oper, now living in Rockford illinios, I laugh when communists like myself that still live in Mad bemoan the lack of progressives.
Come down here for a summer. Then you’ll know what a conservative really looks like.
I like competence instead of drama.
Are “drama” and competence mutually exclusive? Just because someone is passionate and fights for what is right and encounters resistance . . .are they not competent? Was not the smoking ban drama filled, but ultimately the right thing?