|
|
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
|
THE RETURN OF PETE WILSON
|
|---|
| Parent(s) |
Candidate
|
| Contributor | Summer Intern |
| Last Edited | Summer Intern Nov 13, 2004 08:37pm |
| Logged |
0
|
| Category | News |
| News Date | Saturday, November 13, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | THOUGH THE STREETS ARE FAMILIAR and the old friends are still smiling, a trip to San Diego for Pete Wilson is still a disconnect from his beginnings. This is a man who would suffocate without the oxygen of politics. So when he looks at the San Diego Convention Center, he sees urban redevelopment; when he watches the trolley rumble by, he relives a mass-transit controversy. But all those pressing issues that used to be on his daily agenda have either disappeared or morphed into new battles being fought by new people in City Hall. He offers no opinions, for example, on a new football stadium or who should be elected to local office.
However, he doesn’t hesitate to jump into the strong-mayor controversy headed for the November 2 ballot, because that was his issue. When he led the city, it had a de facto strong mayor because of his style of leadership. The only way Wilson could have been made less than a strong mayor would require a gag and handcuffs. But when he tried to formalize it by referendum in 1973—abandoning the city manager form of government —it was slapped down by the voters. Resoundingly. Now, Wilson looks at the resurfaced issue and cheers it on. He says the current strong-city-manager form, in big cities at least, is a system that mainly addresses the problems of a half-century or more ago, when local governments were frequently corrupt and officials were as dug in to their offices as gophers.
“Voters didn’t trust local officials, so they tried to improve city hall by putting in a layer of ‘professionalism’ between politicians and government decisions. The problem is, such a layer has the effect of creating insulation between voters and their elected officials, and that makes accountability and communication all the tougher.”
|
| Share |
|
|
2¢
|
|
| Article | Read Full Article |
|
| Date |
Category |
Headline |
Article |
Contributor |
|
|
