Mayor Ashley Swearengin turned the Fresno City Council from five members who opposed the independent police auditor to five members who supported it. That was an impressive political performance by the mayor.
In my column today, I explain how she did it and what she needs to do to handle tough city issues in the future. Click here to read the column.
I have no trouble believing that it was not easy to persuade the City Council to buy it. But the product (in my opinion) is as good as useless. A dragon without teeth, costing us taxpayers a pretty penny. Puff is his name.
Right, so the mayor had a victory.......one that was long over due and fell into her lap.
Before we proclaim that Mayor Swearengin can walk on water and has a rod that when tapped to rock makes water spring forward, let us remind ourselves that Fresno is still a 'Tale of Two Cities', one that has Hoovervilles so horrid that it makes the front page of the New York Times, a city that has deep rooted poverty, neighbourhoods that are blighted and ignored, the list goes on and on.
Downtown Fresno is DEAD, but the neighbourhoods in Downtown that could make a difference are NEVER called part of Downtown, as if to cut them out of the Downtown mindset makes it OK to ignore what truly ails the Downtown area.
MOI is not ready to tell the whole world that our mayor has got it, when it comes to the deep rooted problems that plague Fresno. So long as the New York Times can run a front page story about Fresno that shames us, Mayor Swearengin has nothing to crow about.
That's "Obamavilles" now, Rob!
Isabel is unusually cranky today.....
"Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of..." a blogger man!