Regarding the Recent City Council Reorganization...

For many of those in attendance or who watched Tuesday night’s City Council reorganization on TV, we find ourselves asking, “Why did newly elected Maryann MacGillivray not support Mayor Pro-tem Joe Mosca as mayor. Why did she choose to drive a deeper wedge into an already dysfunctional council by voting to elect Kurt Zimmermann as mayor, skipping over Joe? It’s a question I would have liked Maryann to explain, but she stayed silent on the matter.  I’ve never known Maryann to be short on words. So councilwoman, why?  

In 1996, two years prior to my four year term on our city council and during Maryann’s last term, I attended every council meeting tirelessly. I watched and listened with great fascination and admiration of Maryann’s ability to articulate the development of her thought process. Maryann speaks with the logic and reasoning of a scientist and she possesses an incredible ability to explain how she comes to her conclusions. For a time, I often said that of all the councilmembers that I didn’t serve with, Maryann has always been one of my favorites. (shared of course with Gary Adams). As a matter of fact, when I was contemplating whether to run for council in 1998, Maryann was the first person I called to ask for advice.

With eight years of previous council experience, Maryann is seasoned well enough to realize the destructive nature of a dysfunctional council. (The type of dysfunction that was demonstrated Tuesday night by Councilmember Watt’s rude and disrespectful interruptions of other councilmembers.) And, Tuesday night as Maryann sat in chambers as an elected official for the first time in ten years, I have to believe that she was well aware that she had the option to be the driving force to put an end to this destructive dysfunction and start building a cohesive team. Sadly, she chose not to.  So, Maryann, again I wonder, why?

One person suggested that maybe she had to “pay back” those supporters that made a failed attempt to recall Joe. Frankly, I can’t see Maryann putting herself in any position where she felt indebted to anyone. She’s way too proud and certainly too smart for that.

Perhaps it was a vote of no confidence. But again, Maryann  thinks like a scientist and without even a scintilla of empirical evidence to support such a conclusion, she would have to reject it. Maryann is intelligent enough to see through all of the nonsensical rhetoric that was aimed at Joe and, coupled with per past experience, she knows the commitment it takes to be a councilmember. The facts are that Joe is possibly the hardest working councilmember this city has ever seen and has never broken a campaign promise as some might falsely claim. That’s a fact and Maryann knows it!  So then, why?

Flashback ten years when Maryann left her term infecting our community with her bigoted flawed doctrine of fundamentalist intolerance. Now maybe the answer becomes apparent. That was Maryann’s “in your face” parting shot to our community that she wore like a badge of honor. Now, fast forward to the present and Maryann is serving with an incredible man whose family she was compelled to call a “garbage can situation.”

Tuesday night I possibly witnessed a shameful seamless transition from ten years ago to the present where Maryann went from proudly spewing her faith-based fundamentalist hatred to actually implementing it today. God, I hope not!