After months of planning, weeks of delay, last-minute jockeying and some nasty public bickering, Mayor Tim Davlin finally got his reorganization plan passed on Tuesday by City Council. But it wasn’t pretty.
The Democratic mayor’s own vote broke the tie, which, as he pointed out, fell along party lines, despite Ward 1’s Frank Edwards’ repeated insistence that he was voting his conscience, not his party (Republican).
Technically speaking, party philosophy wasn’t mentioned in the deliberations, except under the code words “previous administration” and “the past eight years,” referring to Republican Karen Hasara, who served as mayor from 1995 until this year.
No one argued about whether Springfield actually needs an Education Liaison, an Inspector General or a full-time director of Hometown Security — three new positions Davlin proposed. Instead, discussion zeroed in on money, or the lack thereof, with Ward 2’s Frank McNeil warning the City would have to lay off employees in the next few weeks — a scenario no one had previously mentioned — if the aldermen refused to pass Davlin’s plan.
McNeil invoked the council’s history of rubber-stamping unbalanced budgets annually, a tradition he simultaneously decried and pleaded to extend.
“I never voted for a budget under the former administration for eight years. The reason why is the reason we have this problem today: None of those budgets were balanced. And now we’re seeing the end result of eight years of ‘spend and be happy,'” McNeil said.
“Now we have a deficit situation we’re dealing with tonight. And everybody’s saying . . . ‘I can’t do this!’ What’s the difference?” McNeil asked.
The mere fact that he belongs to the same political party as the mayor has never meant McNeil would automatically vote Davlin’s way. In fact, McNeil torpedoed a major component of Davlin’s original plan — the creation of a mega department encompassing public works and City Water, Light and Power, to be controlled by the mayor’s pal Todd Renfrow.
McNeil’s independent streak may be attributed to his unique position on the council. As the only African-American alderman, McNeil answers to a constituency larger than just his ward on the east side, and one with a painful history, as was evident later in the meeting, when the topic of black police promotions was discussed (look for major changes in the civil service commission).
McNeil’s emergence as head cheerleader for Davlin’s plan came only after a private afternoon meeting with the mayor and a surprise amendment adding the “executive assistant” to the mayor’s cabinet. This amendment restored some of the prestige that Letitia Dewith-Anderson lost in the reorganization ordinance when her title was changed from “chief of staff” (the equivalent of deputy mayor) to “executive assistant.” Both Davlin and Dewith-Anderson appeared to be shocked by McNeil’s amendment.
Another last-minute maneuver came from Ward 6’s Mark Mahoney, who made Davlin publicly promise to try to establish a neighborhood services office by early 2004. Mahoney came up with the idea after hearing citizens complain that they had trouble figuring out how to access services at City Hall — a problem they found more frustrating than the lack of a Hometown Security director, Mahoney later said.
But after all the political jockeying, the buzz in the peanut gallery had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with political correctness. In the heat of the budget fracas, when the bickering between Ward 10’s Bruce Strom and Ward 4’s Chuck Redpath reached the shrillness of a dental drill, Davlin tapped his gavel and clucked, “Ladies, ladies, ladies!”
That was one action that didn’t follow party lines. Strom is Republican, and
Redpath is not only a Democrat but also one of Davlin’s best friends. Just for
the record, neither Strom nor Redpath is a lady.
This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2003.
