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Permalink Reply by DeWain Feller on January 18, 2011 at 10:49pm

Some of the proponents of the special election argued that Western Civilization would collapse if we did not have the "stability" that the special election would provide.

 

So... how much stability is this option providing us now?  If Rochester can survive having 3 different mayors in a few weeks, we certainly could survive an interim appointed mayor until a real election could be held in the fall.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Sweetland on January 18, 2011 at 11:27pm

I respectfully disagree.  An election at the end of March will be "real."  And an inerim mayor is not going to have the power of a real mayor, and projects may fall behind, and city employees will not be in stability. 

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on January 19, 2011 at 10:22am

If I understand it correctly, the original options were as follows:

1) Council 'appoints' an interim Mayor (i.e. Richards or someone else but NOT a member of council) who serves for a year - a general election is held in the Fall with the newly elected Mayor taking office Jan 2012.

                                                      - OR-

2) the deputy Mayor is the 'acting mayor' until a 'special election' is held and the 'special election' must occur within 90 days of the Mayor's (Duffy) departure.

 

In scenario 1 - Richards COULD have been appointed (but he said he would have refused this) and he COULD have also run for election.

 

Scenario 2 is what has transpired in terms of Richards being the 'acting mayor' (until tomorrow) and because he wants to be the 'real' mayor (i.e. elected) he's stepping down because of the Hatch issue. So, we are left with the revolving door of Mayors especially as Carlos Carbolada has not intention of running for the office.

 

Because many people are outraged by these events (Bill Johnson being a very loud voice in this debate) we could actually have 4 different Mayors in a short period of time:

Duffy

Richards

Carbolado 

___________??

 

What would have been better- Richards for a year followed by an elected Mayor (which could have been Richards) or the scenario we have right now!?

I guess the good news in all of this is that Rochester might be saving some money since there is no salary cost being paid to a "mayor" or the position formerly held by Tom Richards - maybe we can use some of the money for projects in our immediate community..... I still need some street repair in front of my home :-) (some sarcasm intended!)

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on January 26, 2011 at 12:11pm

Last night, City Council voted (for real) to move ahead with the Special Election.

Tom Richards is a declared candidate along with Bill Johnson, Alex White and Harry Davis. 

Per the news reports I've read, several Council members are quoted (perhaps out of context) in a manner that seems to suggest that those opposed to the special election should simply shut up and get on with it and/or get over it. THese types of statements are not particularly helpful from my perspective.

I 'get it' that Council believes that the city needs to move quickly to get a 'permanent' mayor in place but it's clear that the city is still VERY divided on this issue (and plenty of others) and it seems that this is likely to get worse, rather than better in the coming months. The city may also end up with a 'surprise' mayor who is not the best candidate but who gets elected due to this chaos and 'spin', etc.

Instead of listening to various 'sound bytes' and/or reading bits and pieces from news sources, it would be great if each council member produced a statement re: their perspective on the Mayoral issue along with their reasoning for choosing the Special election route. 

I continue to wonder if we all would have been better off if Tom Richards had agreed to an appointment as 'interim' mayor and not force the special election process...... the scenario we have now is that he is not currently involved in city government and might not win the special election.

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