It is almost never good when your locality is mentioned in the same sentence with Detroit.
USA Today’s article, City Council pays for lessons in civility, takes an in-depth look at acrimonious squabbling on the Ashland, OR city council and includes,
More recently, public fireworks have been reported on city and county panels in Detroit; San Francisco; Chesapeake City, Md.; Mount Dora, Fla.; Milton and Alpharetta, Ga.; and the Missouri towns of St. Peters, O’Fallon and St. Charles. [emphasis added]
For several years now, my wife and I have been bemused by the goings-on in these local city councils. All three groups (St. Peters and O’Fallon city councils, especially) act like groups of misbehaving kindergartners, each member (and mayor) generally disrespectful of opposing viewpoints. The cities seem more interested in becoming “big government” and collecting graft than governing well.
Obviously, what we thought was petty king-making and marginally entertaining is a much bigger problem. As our civic leaders, we expect them to grow up and learn to get along.
