Deja Vu

It is Déjà vu for me. I see in the paper where Mayor Marty Chavez wants to have lunch with three councilors every week to see if he can smooth over his differences with them. The media is saying the two warring factions should work together. That is true. At the same time the system is set up to have constant friction between the two bodies, which is probably good.

Marty, I tried this same thing during my term as Mayor. Once a week I invited Councilors to lunch with me at the Petroleum club, now defunct, and we tried to talk through things. The fact is the luncheons were unproductive because it was really the desire of the then city council staff that things not get worked out. The big mistake was letting staffs from both branches attend the meeting. Don’t let that happen or the dynamics will be all wrong.

I had a very contentious council to deal with. Think of it. Greg Payne, Mike McEntee and Hess Yntema were all serving as hit men for the Republican Party in one way or another. Now Mayor Chavez is getting the same thing from the less conservative members of the Council. Probably, Marty’s ‘my way or no way’ attitude does not help. It is something the public does not see often and now some Council members are just fed up.

Things are unlikely to get much better.