There are going to be at least 9 new faces on the City Council, and maybe more. This leads many people to ask several questions.
Why is everyone retiring?
I don’t think there is any one answer to this question. For some, I think its more work than they thought it would be. For most, it probably has more to do with what is going on in their personal lives. For some, some of the nastiness of the last term may have just made them think “this isn’t worth it!”. Those retiring are Judy Olson (1995), Austin King (2003), Ken Golden (1989), Brian Benford (2003), Isadore Knox (2005), Santiago Rosas (1993), Paul VanRooy (2001), Noel Radomski (2005) and Cindy Thomas (1999). I think if you were to ask them, they’d each have their own reasons.
What does it mean for the Council?
Here’s something that struck me as bizarre. Look at who’s left on the Council and when they were elected.
1984 – Tim Bruer
1995 – Mike Verveer
1999 – Judy Compton
2001 – Brenda Konkel, Paul Skidmore
2003 – Zach Brandon, Robbie Webber and Mayor Dave
2005 – Jed Sanborn, Lauren Cnare, Tim Gruber, Larry Palm
With the retirements of Warren Onken and Jean MacCubbin last year and Ken Golden and Judy Olson we are losing alot of institutional memory. There are very few alders mentioned above who have actually introduced a piece of legislation and seen it through to the point where it passes, let alone shepherding through a controversial piece of legislation.
As with life, this presents both tremendous opportunities and at the same time, threats. Opportunities to do things in a new way, hopefully with more respect for the public and how they can give input into decisions we make. Threats because we’re probably going to spend alot of time recreating the wheel, getting tangled up in things that we wouldn’t if we had more experience around and generally speaking, things will probably take longer as more people have more questions. Staff reports will be more important and carry more influence.
Who’s going to be the the leadership on the Council?
Tim Bruer? Judy Compton?
People are spending alot of time talking about if there is going to be a shift to the right or the left. My guess is, there will be a shift in influence of the Mayor’s office. With seven full time people to lobby the council plus administrative staff, this could very well end up the Mayor’s council. That may or may not be a good or bad thing, but it’s definitely a shift. One thing is certain, it will be an interesting year as all of this plays out.
