Tuesday, January 8, 2013

What Happened Last Night, and What it All Means

In a lightning fast vote, Jerry L. Ryan was elected as City Council President for 2013. As is typical, nominations were opened, Ryan was nominated, then nominations were closed with no further nominations. Ryan was escorted to the podium (all five steps) and delivered his address, in which he called for renewed cooperation in local government.

So what does that mean? Well, a week ago, Bob McCarthy was going to be the next president. The Salem Patch insinuation that Sosnowski was going to be the next president is erroneous. Not that he wasn't interested, he was, but the seat was going to McCarthy. The Pinto supporters were convinced that McCarthy was voting for Pinto on Thursday, and pulled their support from his presidency once that didn't happen. Several councilors don't want the presidency. (Picture Furey or O'Keefe!) The seat tends to rotate between those who do. Ryan, as the most recent president still on the council, would normally not be back so soon. My guess (really just a guess) is that Prevey deferred to Ryan. Ryan's election will result in Prevey replacing McCarthy as the chair of the A&F ($$$) committee. (The president makes the committee assignments.) Look for Sosnowski to remain as the chair of OLLA. Numerous councilors (including some Pinto supporters) didn't want Sosnowski as president while he's considering a run for mayor. I didn't want Sosnowski as president because I've seen how much trouble he has finding his place in the agenda as a regular councilor. Those could be some painful meetings.

The fact that team Corchado allowed the selection to be unanimous and immediate tells me that an agreement has been made about the open seat. Horse trading was in full effect. Ryan's call for renewed cooperation says the same. I asked him in my post the other day, at what cost? I should have asked at what benefit? He's really played this well. He managed to get a presidency, and the extra exposure (not to mention extra $$) that goes with it, when it wasn't nearly his turn, during the year that he's running for an at-large seat, and needs to convince a whole lot of people to vote for him for the first time. He'll get to claim credit for brokering the peace as well. I'd expect a really tame year, as everyone treads water until the election.

Tonight, I predict the following, in order of my level of confidence:

1. Steve Pinto will not be elected to the open seat.
2. It will be done very quickly. Either one or two ballots.
3. If it's two ballots, Pinto gets to announce that he's willing to step aside, to stop the madness. He may get the chance to address council either way.
4. So who wins? My first guess is that Bill Legault is elected. My second guess would be "other." I think Corchado is out of luck. The Pinto side needs it not to be her, to save some face. Robert Wright is a big unknown. If team "Driscoll is Satan" can be convinced that he'll be more sympathetic to that view, he could get the nod. Chris Sicuranza probably killed any chance of his election by yelling at the council and storming out of the room, and Sawicki is Sawicki. I doubt they'll select someone who hadn't previously expressed interest, though there is nothing stopping them from doing so.

You can all grade me on this later. Have fun tonight!

PS- A new lease proposal for the city hall annex, you know, the same annex that started the downfall of councilors Pinto and Ronan, is on the agenda for Thursday night's meeting. Will be interesting to see if we approve it this time, or if we continue paying more to occupy that space than we need to. Like last time, it needs a 2/3 majority to pass.

7 comments:

  1. I think you're mostly right. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple votes, but not a majority, from the Corchado side at least briefly swing to Darek B.

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  2. I think you got it right!

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  3. I think Ryan already lost a ton of votes with his immature behavior last week. People won't forget that bratty display behavior that we all witnessed until 1:25am!

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  4. I think they would have to open to pool of candidates to any new interested party in order to consider me. None the less I put it out there if that was going to be the only viable solution to this situation. My belief is that they have reached a compromise to appoint one of the original 6 candidates.

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  5. All I can say is, nailed it. Pat myself on the back.

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  6. What is truly incredible is the year after year election of Tom Furey. You want to talk about childish? What exactly does this guy bring to the table? How about Turiel whining and complaining? "I'm leaving at 1:00 no matter what". Seriously? I've seen 3 year olds act more grown up. In all of this what has been the one very interesting thing missing from your discussion is Kevin Carr. Councilor Carr has really brought nothing to the table in his term as councilor. He sat on the school committee and watched as the city schools went into Level 4 status and no one questioned him on it. Now on the council he looks like he doesn't want to be there and really brings nothing to the table. The lable "lap dog" really applies here. He rarely shows up to meetings and rarely has anything to say at council meetings. Even last night he was exposed for who he really is. First it was I'll vote for the next person who had the most votes. Then is was oh no that would mean Pinto so I need to clarify. This guy is a complete boob.

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Don't forget, keep it klassy!