Fairfield's ready for the new year
By Kelvin Wade
| | December 05, 2007 22:28
A nagging illness kept me from attending the festivities at City Hall Tuesday evening but thanks to Channel 26, I was able to watch the proceedings.
First, it was great to see a standing room only crowd at a City Council meeting. I would normally deride anyone who attends such meetings as someone who usually gets their kicks hanging out at insurance seminars, grass-growing observations and paint-drying demonstrations.
I understand there were enthusiastic supporters and well-wishers who wanted to cheer their candidates on.
There seemed to be a lot of love in the room with Frank Kardos starting off the love fest with a tribute to outgoing council members Marilyn Farley and Jack Batson. Then Councilman John Mraz delivered a heartfelt thanks to City Manager Kevin O'Rourke. It was a very nice if not Alice in Wonderland moment.
It was a far cry from a campaign that saw the political equivalent of drive-by shootings and IEDs.
Seeing Chuck Timm take the oath of office signaled a change in direction for the council. He was magnanimous in his remarks and acknowledged that he was simply the flavor of the month and things could change. Humility wears well in a politician.
Watching Matt Garcia take the oath from fellow Councilman John Mraz was incredibly moving. This energetic young upstart started his campaign late and worked hard beating seasoned campaigners.
He shocked me yesterday by admitting that while he canvassed coffee shops and stores meeting and greeting the public during the campaign, he never knocked on one house door. He didn't want to impose in that way. He truly ran a different kind of campaign.
Matt told me if I wrote anything about his swearing-in I had to include his apology for taking the oath with his left hand. He was holding a mic in his right and was simply nervous.
I laughed at that. He thought he was nervous then. He's lucky I didn't call him on his cell phone in the middle of his swearing-in like I'd planned.
All kidding aside, one could only look at him and his family with pride and know that his political career is just beginning. Every time I see Matt on TV or talk to him on the phone, I can tell he's going places. And he's going to take Fairfield with him.
One thing that Matt probably doesn't want me to mention but I feel I have to in order to show Fairfielders just what kind of councilman they've elected, is that part of what he's been doing is working behind the scenes to heal divisions among city officials.
This isn't something he has to do. He wants to do it. He told me that it's not that he's on any one person's team. He's on Team Fairfield.
You could sense the promise in the air Tuesday. It really felt like a fresh start for Fairfield.
Now the hard part: The city has lost $3.2 million in annual revenue. What's going to be cut to make up the difference? Will the city sell a golf course? When we slash the park budget, what will our parks look like? Will the city encourages more organizations to adopt parks to take care of them?
The new council isn't likely to reach for taxes and fees to make up budget shortfalls. But if they don't, will they be able to cut enough to make ends meet?
Then you have the Frank Kardos situation. Kardos goes on trial next year and depending on the outcome of that trial, he may be off the council. What happens then?
What happens when the new bloc disagrees? It's bound to happen. The smart growth faction had a solid voting bloc until then-Councilman John English decided to go his own way.
OK. No more raining on the parade. But it's time to go to work. Peace.
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NOTES: Okay, check it out. This wasn't the original column that I wrote this week. I actually wrote a rather politically incorrect column on radical Islam. And its not that I didn't want to run it. I do and I will run it. Probably on my DR blog and maybe I'll post it here, too. But after the swearing in of two new local Councilman, I felt I owed a column dealing with that. I'm really proud of Matt Garcia, who's photo I've included above. He's a great guy.
Now onto the controversial column I wrote. Hey, its politically incorrect. But I've been looking at some things going on in our world that I can't remain silent about. No way.
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