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Thursday, February 07, 2008

The Game Plan

Immediately after Salisbury Councilwoman Louise Smith's "Fascist Fiesta" on Monday, she was approached by Barrieland's el presidente para vida, Mayor Barrie Tilghman - "Louise, we have to get together and work on your game plan".

Tilghman may also be wishing that the Mike Dunn days were back. Back then Tilghman only had to give him marching orders. If Dunn went a little too far in executing his orders, the ruling elite would send a babysitter for the next meeting or two.

With Smith it has become increasingly apparent that she is incapable of carrying out her orders without a detailed script. Anything that takes Smith off of script, like questions from a council member, leads to threats, lectures and an overall breakdown.

It may be Tilghman's plan to allow Smith's bad behavior to be the diversion she (Tilghman) needs to draw some attention away from the total breakdown of the city's financial management. On the surface it seems like a good plan. Tilghman has never hesitated throwing one of her minions to the wolves when public furor became a touch to loud.

It won't work this time. Unlike her predecessor, Smith actually believes that she's running the council (instead of Tilghman). She's attempting to do so in the only manner she knows how; to treat Councilwoman Debbie Campbell, Councilwoman Terry Cohen, and the public like a bunch of recalcitrant school children.

Her lecturing and grandstanding have worn thin with the public, as evidenced by Monday's turn out (which was probably a record for a work session). Unless Tilghman thinks that she can literally sit in the back room and bark instructions to Smith through an ear piece like a modern day Wizard of Oz it's not going to work. As I stated earlier, while Smith follows her orders most of the time, when she enters the council chambers she forgets her place in the Barrieland hierarchy.

A word of advice Barrie -
Smith doesn't appear to have the mental ability to run your rubber stamp council unless the minority (and the public) is bound and gagged. Since I sincerely hope your opposition isn't going down without a fight, it's time to jettison this piece of baggage and backbench her.

cross posted at Delmarva Dealings

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cato: Another good piece of writing on this subject of city finances and controls. It is quite obvious who pulls what strings for whom, from the way Louise acts and how frustratyed she seems to get when challenged.
She reacts like a spoiled child, kind of like the ones she dominated as a school teacher apparently!

A. Goetz