I like a good city council election. Problem is getting one. So many local elections are unopposed.

Since there are so few actual races city council candidates find no need to state what they stand for.

Then there is Trenton City Council candidate Daryl Mikell Brooks …

My name is Daryl Mikell Brooks and I’m running for City Council at Large. I’m a young man who believes in participatory democracy and equitably representative government. The Trenton City Council election in 2010 is both a job opening and a job review.

My campaign mission is to help establish a City wide Community Coalition that helps foster a greater sense of community by organizing a critical mass of residents committed to civic participation, government accountability, community responsibility and good neighborliness. I want Trenton to work together and will facilitate greater cooperation based on our common interests. We all share a human experience so we can identify common ground.

I envision a proud, cooperative, healthy, clean, safe, vibrant, and peacefully diverse city –a multi-cultural, inter-generational and mixed income community. I envision an organized and effective City Wide Community Coalition that works together to successfully: (1) overcome the foreclosure crisis, (2) reverse economic disinvestment and (3) foster opportunities for: (a) viable youth development, (b) family stability, and (c) educational and economic advancement for all. That is my campaign platform, encapsulated.

It does not matter if I agree or disagree with Mr. Brooks platform. I don’t live in Trenton. What impresses me is the fact Mr. Brooks is willing to state what he believes is best for Trenton. Very few city council candidates do that. They should.

Lobbyist … Scarlett L?

Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Even at the local level of government, lobbyists are ever present making sure their members or client’s views are considered as solutions to problems.

How lobbyists are identified varies from one city to another. What brings this issue up is the City of San Jose…

Working Partnerships a non-profit association does not object to disclosing their lobbying efforts but they object to the term “lobbyist.”

Are there bad apple lobbyists? Of course.

Are there bad apple priests and ministers? You betcha.

There are there bad apple every things.

Come on Lobbyists … say it loud … I will lead this cheer … a few bad apples won’t silence us …

I’m a Lobbyist and Darn Proud of It!

Sheila Murphy Cockrel.

A relic from the past.

Cockrel is a relic of Detroit’s past. She is the only white member of the city council and, when her term ends in late December, she could well be its last. Even though she is personally popular, she is leaving the council partly because she is tired of the scandals that have rocked the city lately. Her departure is a significant moment in the history of Detroit, the largest majority-black city in America. In the 1950s, when Detroit’s population reached its 2 million peak, nearly 1.6 million white people lived here. In 1990, though whites were still represented in several major elected posts, they comprised only about 20% of the population. Now, whites make up barely 8% of the city’s estimated 912,000 residents. 

It use to be news when the first blacks were elected to local office. 

 Now in Detroit it is news when they aren’t.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is doing his best to bring the Weak Mayor – Strong Mayor issue to the forefront.

With California’s capital city in deep economic trouble, Mayor Kevin Johnson wants to call the shots, just as he once did as a star point guard for the Phoenix Suns basketball team. But there’s an obstacle: Sacramento has what is known a “weak mayor” system, making its mayor, in effect, just another city-council member.

Mr. Johnson says Sacramento needs a “strong mayor” arrangement — with the mayor as head of the government — as do a majority of big cities such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco. To get there, Mr. Johnson is campaigning for a controversial ballot measure that would boost his powers to lead this city of 480,000.

“If you have to do everything by committee, it gets bogged down and you miss a ton of opportunities,” the 43-year-old Democrat said during an interview in his City Hall office.

But those who oppose the measure accuse Mr. Johnson of making a power grab. “This initiative, if it passes, will put only one seat at the table,” says Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy. “The checks and balances are lopsided” in Mr. Johnson’s proposal.

The same old tired arguements that are always used when this issue arises.

However, since the Political Philosophy 101 Class has not discussed his issue in a while, it will be soon.

I will be giving my same old philosophical view that Strong does not mean effective … nor does Weak indicate ineffective.

It’s not the system that makes or breaks a Mayor.

A couple of articles wove together for you today.

From Bellingham, WA  News Tribune we read … 

For the first time in 52 years, there will be no women on the City Council.

Now, the council looks more like it did in 1958.

And how about this from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls (IA) Courier …

Twenty-two candidates ran for city offices in Waterloo and Cedar Falls this fall. Every single one of them was a man.

I call this the old white guy syndrome.

Sure, there are a few minorities … and an even smaller pool of women … and an even smaller pool of minority women serving in local government across the nation, but for the most part it is old white guys like myself running local government.

I’ve never thought this was a good situation but I honestly don’t have a clue what to do about it.

There has to be some voodoo philosophical reason for this situation that I don’t understand.

So, a panel of voodoo philosophers have been invited to discuss this issue at the next Political Philosophy 101 Class.

Any comments from women on this issue? 

Hello?

I was having coffee with my normal crew of non-political junkies.

That morning we were discussing politics. We were discussing a very young Mayoral candidate.

One guy said he thought this candidate could go far in politics if he didn’t p#ss off too many people.

I agreed somewhat.

In politics you will p#ss off people sometimes. Even, or especially, if you do nothing you will p#ss off people.

So, it all comes down to the definition of “too many people.”

Sounds like a discussion for Political Philosophy class.

It is thought by some that “big city” city councils are smarter than “little city” city councils … more sophisticated … all that crap.

I’m here today to tell you that stupid decisions are made everywhere.

NEW YORK, NY November 16, 2009 —The city council has overwhelmingly approved a new five-minute grace period for certain parking violations before those bright orange tickets can be issued. However, Mayor Bloomberg is vowing to veto the bill. “A five-minute grace period is only going to lead to chaos, and enormous increases, I think, in contested tickets and arguments,” Bloomberg says.

But the council, which approved the rule by a vote of 47 to 2, has enough votes to override any veto. Supporters say they believe the five-minute rule will end a “ticketing blitz” by the Bloomberg administration, and a “gotcha” attitude by traffic enforcers. An analysis by The New York Times found that, last year, 276,000 tickets were written within five minutes of alternate side parking rules going into effect. Of those, 28,000 were written at the exact moment the rules took effect.

But, but, but…. what if I am within five minutes of the five minute grace period?

I’m with the Mayor on this one. This will create chaos and arguments up the wazoo.

I will be anxious to see if the Political Philosophy Class agrees with me?

Mayors have power. No doubt about it. The power of the bully pulpit is one of the powers. When Mayors talk … people listen. They don’t necessarily agree but they listen.

Who’s listening now?

An outspoken Kiwi politician has proposed a new solution to the country’s child abuse problem – pay the “appalling underclass” not to breed.

Michael Laws – who stirred up controversy by calling the late Tongan King a “bloated brown slug” – has again hit the headlines.

“That there is a group within our society who give their children no hope nor opportunity from the moment that they are born,” the regional mayor wrote on the New Zealand radio websitewhere he broadcasts as a talkback DJ.

“That these ‘parents’ are known to authorities … and yet the authorities can only intervene after children have been harmed.”

Mr Laws goes on to write: “it would be far better for this appalling underclass to be offered financial inducements not to have children, given the toxic environment that they would provide for any child in their care.”

The mayor believes “the consequent financial and social savings to our community would be considerable.

“There are too many people who should not have children.”

Mr Laws said a report in New Zealand’s Dominion-Post newspaper yesterday had incorrectly attributed the view to him that all those who got welfare should be sterilised.

Mr Laws wrote on the website ”that most welfare beneficiaries are good parents” but it was the problem ones who should be offered money not to breed.

Yesterday’s Dominion-Post newspaper quotes him as saying: “If we gave $10,000 to certain people and said ‘we’ll voluntarily sterilise you’ then all of society would be better off.” 

“There’d be less dead children and less social problems.”

Any volunteers to defend this position?

With all the real issues a city council must deal with, to spend time on nonsense issues makes no sense to me.

What is a real issue and what is nonsense?

You tell me what this is.

A key committee of the Los Angeles City Council voted today to seek a law banning veterinarians from declawing cats, saying the procedure constituted cruelty to animals.

The council’s Public Safety Committee unanimously recommended that City Atty. Carmen Trutanich draft an ordinance banning the practice. The proposal was made by Councilmen Bill Rosendahl and Paul Koretz, who said the procedure caused “unnecessary pain, anguish and permanent disability” to cats.

Councilman Tony Cardenas threw his support behind the measure but voiced doubts that the city’s Animal Services Department had enough employees to enforce such a law.  He also worried that cat owners will simply go to veterinarians in neighboring cities to get the procedure, sometimes known as an onychectomy.

“I don’t want to give you false hope,” Councilman Greig Smith told the audience of cat advocates and assorted city employees. “This is not going to stop the problem.”

The Political Philosophy Class will be discussing this next week.

Your comments are welcome now.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was having a new blog site designed. Well, here it is. I hope you like it. I sure do.

You will notice on the right sidebar, a box which will take you to my new ebook  WHY YOUR CITY COUNCIL MAKES DUMB DECISIONS … AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. It’s free! There is no reason not for anyone to download and read it. Pass it on to friends and family. Post a link on your website or blog.

If prior to reading this ebook you wish to nominate me for the Nobel Prize for Literature you can find that nomination procedure here. 

After reading,  any and all comments would be appreciated.