Mayor Art Ward said he hoped that city leaders would show the sort of bipartisanship "that I demonstrated in the appointment process," when plum assignments were handed out to councilors from both parties and to members who squabbled with Ward during the past two years.
This week's fight over committee assignments left the mayor disappointed but, he said, he still has hope that everyone will get along.
Ward said that he doesn't mind disagreement as long as it's done respectfully and to push a different idea about how best to serve the city.
The mayor doesn't believe that's what happened when city Councilor Craig Minor led a revolt against three park commissioners' reappointment in order to try to force Ward's hand into remaking the Park Revitalization Committee.
A week before the council meeting, Ward said, he met with Minor and Councilor Kevin McCauley and explained to them that he intended to appoint a new Park Revitalization panel at the council's January session. Neither of them objected, the mayor said.
On the Friday before the council meeting, Ward said, he spoke with McCauley and, again, no objections were raised to the plan.
Not until theTuesday afternoon of the council meeting did Minor express his wishes that a Park Revitalization Committee be created before the three park commissioners would get his vote for reappointment, Ward said.
By that time, he said, it was too late to name a new committee, particularly since councilors have made clear for a long time that they will only back appointments when they've had the names for a few days so they can consider them with care.
Ward said the move -- for which Minor had support from McCauley and Councilors Cliff Block and Ken Cockayne -- effectively turned three good volunteers into "pawns" in a political power play.
"We're crying out for volunteers" to serve city government, Ward said, and the council treated them as pawns. He called it "disheartening."
The three park commissioners were given a thumbs-up later in the council meeting when Cockayne switched sides after Ward vowed publicly to pick a Park Revitalization panel next month.
Ward said that if the rebels mean what they said later about not wanting to put volunteer board picks on the spot, he's sure the same standard will apply when he names appointees to the new Park Revitalization panel.
Though he would not say who might be in line for the panel, it's pretty clear that its membership won't match the lineup the committee had during Mayor William Stortz's administration.
Ward said he was particularly concerned to see that two of the councilors who initially opposed his park panel choices were freshen: Cockayne and Block.
He said the two never asked him anything about the three commissioners and never gave any indication they wouldn't support the trio of veteran volunteers.
"I'd be thinking about my conscience" if he were one of them, Ward said, because they had no knowledge of the job done by the people they turned into pawns.
Ward said that he hopes everyone will consider what they're doing more carefully.
"It all goes back to what I tried to do in the first meeting, to establish the need for mutual respect," Ward said.
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
15 comments:
It's probably not a good idea to characterize Council Members as "rebels" when speaking of "cooperative spirit."
Ward didn't call them rebels. That was my word. I sort of jive to the idea of Craig Minor as a rebel, kind of like James Dean. ;)
Well, Steve, you know that everyone loves James Dean and that anything written by the 4th estate is taken as gospel.
...and I like his sausage, too. :)
If Minor, Block and McCauley would stop listening to Ellen and start listening to Art, maybe they would get something accomplished and there wouldn't be any more mis-communications.
Ward was in the middle last time, is in the middle again.
Common denominator?
Let's recap - Couture Administration -Ward is the do-nothing Deputy Dawg and annoys the rest of the Council by his (lack) of actions and bravado.
Stortz Administration - Ward sits in the corner and complains about everything and does no real work.
His administration - expects everyone to tow the line without offering much in the way of working as a team.
The only way that this will be "resolve" is for a lot of horse trading, which will very very expensive for the people.
Did we expect no less?
I'm extremely embarassed to reside in a community whereas comments like these are even being spoken and posted. Is eveyone in this city in the 4th grade or what? I have lived all over the world and have NEVER seen a town that eats itself up as much as this town. There are more critics in Bristol than in Washington D.C. Everyone needs to stop connecting the Ellen dots with people and let the new Mayor get to work. Work together!!!
posters are of the same thought process and unless the purpose of mutual respect is both recognized and impemented. nothing positive will occur.
You have a new mayor with a huge inferiority complex and has never been in a management position and has worked full-time out of town for his entire Council career, he barely won the primary and election, and now seems to be more interested in having people prove loyalty than getting over the chip on his shoulder and making some decisions. If anyone has to get over the last six months, its him and his supporters.
I agree - the Ellen thing is way overdone and these comments are vile and vicious. Steve, if you didn't post them, people would not have to be subjected to this and it might elevate the dialogue on this site a wee bit. Great concept, not working to foster the exchange of ideas at this point, or is that your point?
Really, I figure Ellen is too busy causing global warming, spurring on al Quaeda, helping the Iranians build nuclear bombs, trying to cause earthquakes in California and passing steroids to All-Stars to do half the things they accuse her of in City Hall. But my role here is only to try to keep the truly awful stuff in check. And I usually do.
If however, you see a post you think is too offensive, please call it to my attention. It may have slipped through inadvertently or I may just have been sleeping when I check okay for it. My eyes glaze over sometimes when I'm reading some of these comments and I know I miss some things.
Steve,
I agree with all the posters calling for respect and intellegent conversation. I feel bad and embarrished for the good people of Bristol that you have to waste your time babysitting some of the folks posting to this Blog. Maybe the answer is to establish a few ground rules like name calling, hateful comments and character assassination are not allowed. If it can't be said in an intellegent manner than it doesn't make the Blog. Let's agree to raise the standards of this forum and make it something we can be proud of.
The problem is that one person's "hate" is another person's fair debate. If I hold the blog to the standards of the Oxford Debating Society, nothing much will ever get said. And as soon as I clamp down on all the stuff between pure bile and elevated discussion, I'm accused to favoring this side or that. So I muddle through, trying not to waste much time thinking through each comment before approving it or killing it.
I would say, though, that those of you who are trying to make a point would do better to try to persuade others of your views instead of making sweeping, ugly generalizations that only exacerbate the divisions that exist within the small pool of people who give a damn about city politics and government.
Let's get this straight. Ward is NOT Couture and Minor and McCauley are NOT working for Zoppo. It's getting tiring to see this sort of thing going around. Every time someone doesn't like something the mayor does or the councilors do, they blame it on a former mayor or councilor. Enough is enough. Let's move on from this childish behavior. If you can't prove it, don't bother saying it!
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