City Council gets broad criticism from public

It seems that everyone on the Council came in for criticism at their recent meeting:

Minutes before the council voted unanimously to pick Assistant City Manager Rich Dlugas as the interim manager, members took more than an hour of finger wagging from disgruntled constituents, an in-person outcry that followed a flood of protesting e-mails to city offices.

One, Bette Phillips, announced a recall petition drive against Matt Orlando and Martin Sepulveda. Others criticized Pentz's supporters on the council for fueling the controversy.

"This arrogant, self-righteous attitude has got to stop; it's about time the council worked together as a group," Ron Enderle said.

Michele Daly quoted kindergarten conduct rules and told the council, "The public is more aware of your bad behavior than you realize . . . it's time to stop being disrespectful to each other."

Three former mayors were in the audience and two entered the fray. "You just talk AT each other; you don't talk TO each other," former mayor Coy Payne said. "Why can't City Council members get along?"

Former Mayor Jim Patterson said the group's communication has been poor but recall isn't the answer. He talked about the successful recall of a mayor and four councilmen in 1979, and said removing elected officials from office for their decisions is a bad move. "If you think that's a healing process, you've got to be nuts," he said. "It took us years to put that (1979 recall) behind us."

The Chandler Law Enforcement Association, the city's police union, also weighed in.

President Paul Babeu and Vice President Cassandra Cockings urged the council to move on and stop fighting. Babeu handed over a letter that hinted the council should stop talking about hiring back Pentz after two of his detractors leave office in a few weeks. He had supported the manager's ouster and said he felt threatened by Pentz. "A city manager shouldn't be a lightening [sic] rod," Babeu said outside the meeting.

The oral battering got the council's attention.

"I think we were all taken to the woodshed tonight," Orlando said. (Emphasis added)

Most notable for me in this is that the criticism was not monolithic, but ranged across the whole council. Particularly that there was criticism of Pentz supporters for "fueling the controversy" and an outright condemnation of a recall as being bad for the City.

This continues to confirm in my mind that a recall is not the right course of action and that Mayor Dunn should bear some of the responsibility for poor leadership on the council which has facilitated this factionalizing and breakdown of communication.