We Need Our Leaders To Lead
Why do we elect city councilman and county commissioners? The ideal response would be that we elect these individuals to lead our boards and make decisions based upon the will of the electorate. The actual response, based upon today’s statements in the Charlotte Observer in an article entitled “Jones: Delay Merger with City” on consolidation by Mayor Anthony Foxx and County Chairman Jennifer Roberts, would be to go along with the will of the city and county manager and their respective staffs and the will of the people be damned.
Consolidation is a serious issue that is neither politically attractive nor sexy to the media. It has been tried once before and defeated. The whirling dervish that is city and county politics would be kicked into overdrive on both sides if it were to be seriously considered. However, that is not the issue, nor is this piece written to debate the merits on either side. The issue here is the lack of leadership and backbone by both of our elected heads of local government and their unwillingness to stand by their positions on consolidation and go against the un-elected heads of Charlotte’s bureaucracies.
Consolidation has been highly touted by both Roberts and Foxx in the last months. Foxx even labeled the issue as one of his three C’s that the city needs to focus on in his State of the City address two weeks ago. I suppose now we can consider a third of his speech moot since he has dropped the issue like a hot potato. Roberts campaigned upon the issue and made it a staple in her platform for the last six months. She has even been touting consolidation as an answer to the deep budgetary issues plaguing our county. Yet, when Jones comes out opposed to the idea, which naturally he would as this could potentially mean the end of his job and his staff’s jobs, she ducks, covers and hides behind him.
In our council-manager system the managers have a good portion of the control and manage a large portion of the business of their respective organizations. Yet, these individuals and their staffs are not elected by the people. They are hired and serve at the will of the councils. Without strong leadership from the councils that are elected by the people these managers will never be forced to make the necessary changes that must naturally come about in times of economic trouble. We have to be able turn to our elected heads of these bodies to make the tough decisions and dictate to the city and county how they are to be run or why do we elect them?
Our city leaders must exhibit strong leadership and a willingness to go against the will of these individuals who have a natural inclination to protect their jobs and their staffs. And while I am not unsympathetic to the manager’s reasons, I quote from both the city and county staff in that “WE CANNOT AFFORD THE GOVERNMENT WE HAVE.” It is time for a change in culture and for both Roberts and Foxx to say that they are “disappointed” in the county’s decision and leave it at that is weak minded and evidences either a lack of confidence in their abilities to govern or an inability to go against the will of their respective managers.
I’m not saying that consolidation is right or wrong, good or bad. Nor am I saying that it will be popular or unpopular. The issue at present is the evident lack of good leadership from both Foxx and Roberts. Personally they are both good people and do have the best interests of the city at heart and work hard for the city. However, their sudden reversal of positions and lack of conviction to stand up on these issues and go against those who they supposedly control signal only one self evident proclamation, that they are no longer the de-facto heads of their respective bodies. As that is the case we should just go ahead and give Walton and Jones their titles and force them to stand for election as no one has ever voted for either of them.
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