It is one thing to say you will do something, But it is another thing to do it after elected. ?

It is very easy for a candidate to say they are going to do something when elected and another thing to do it.  I have interviewed Paul Coogan, Erica Scott, Kyle Riley, and Jasiel Correia in the last four weeks. 

I ask each of the questions that I felt they needed to answer and others that are asked in all interviews.  Let me start out saying that I did not go into these interviews with any type of agenda. I did not give softball questions to some and hit hard to others.  So I will tell you from my view and I have been involved in politics in some way for 40 years, Not one candidate was able to tell me how they would pay for anything they talked about.  The mayor has been working on a budget and has already stated how the money will come into some degree.

I ask about crime. I ask how they would address the crime rate any different than the current mayor.  Each had very good and solid ways to address crime.  Bring back more police, put more cops on street, put more walking beats on street, put more police cars on street, and one said that the contract the police have should have had a raise each year and not zero & zero the first  2 years and 2% the third year. I took that as he would have given the police more to show support.  Its always a good thing to publicly say you are going to give police and fire a raise in an election year.  However,  How are you going to pay for it is the question.

I found Paul Coogan to be very educated, focused and seem to have some understanding of a city budget. Mr. Riley gave me the same feeling of being well educated, and he also seems to have the boldest plan for public safety. He said he would add (50) police starting the first week he takes office.  He said he would send them to the police academy in week one.  I was very surprised to hear that. As I have been around politics so long and know how to read a budget and know how hard it is to share the money between so many departments I just found it a strange thing to say. But, he seems to feel he can do it.

Erica Scott was on point with her housing plan, she also talked about more police and working together. She is a grassroots type of candidate.  All three have some good plans. But again, I did ask each at least one time how they would pay for the things they want to add and what will be cut to do that. No one was able or willing to go on record and say they were going to cut funding in some areas or raise taxes or anything that was rock solid.

I am not in any way saying that they did a bad job, or they are not qualified for the job or anything like that.  I have always been of the mindset that a Mayor does not have to have all the answers. He or she don’t even need a degree in my opinion. What they MUST have is common sense and be able to pick the right people to build a team and do that even if the person best for the job was not a supporter. Even if these are the people from an old administration or someone you don’t see eye to eye with.  What we see a lot is a mayor comes in and they begin doing a great job.  Everything’s going good, people feel less stress and have a feeling that things are going to change.   Then at some point, the mayor understands that they are the BOSS, the leader of the city, the MAN or WOMAN.  Ego and Power set in and relationships with staff change. 

What you see after that is a change in staff, their campaign supporters get jobs they never did and are not experienced in.  The public is not the focus and the mayor turns out to be the wrong person for the job.   Shake your head, say I’m nut’s, say I don’t know what I’m talking about. It is ok.  Because I am right. 100% right.  Look at every mayor we ever had. Look at how they started and how it ended.  I want you all to think back and I want you to write down the names of the people that each mayor hired to be around them. I’m willing to bet you that each administration has several people that were at one time working for another Mayor or a family member was or are connected to someone powerful.

I have already taken a look at three candidates that are running now. By looking at their campaign staff, managers, aids, and people advising them as well as the group of people that have come to their side and I see that same group that was involved in the administrations or camps of other mayors.  The same old network of power brokers. From powerful business leaders, long time campaign workers and funding people. That tells me that the old boy political group is making a run for the 6th floor.  Now they will say I’m crazy so here is what I will do. Because we have a few weeks before the election I will bring on any candidate that wants to sit with me in a Wide Open Face to Face hold nothing back interview to answer a few questions.  But this time, You MUST have a plan that outlines how you are going to pay for each of the things you said you wanted to do.   PLEASE,  Do Not tell me that you can’t do that because you don’t have the information of how much available cash we have or that you don’t know what’s in the budget. 

Pull up the budget, get the 3rd quarterly report from Mary and Cathy and all the needed documents you need.  ANY candidate can ask for them and they get them. I have been part of campaigns that did it so YES, You can get the information.   If you are so sure your the best person for the job, Prove it.  But prove it now,   not after you take office by telling the people something you may not be able to do later.  This includes the mayor. He has plans for future development, jobs, public safety, and education too. So he too can show the public.

Now I understand that this has not been ask before.  But this is the second Recall in a short time.  We had a recall because the people said we need to fix our house and get a new leader.  We did, We got one for 10 months. Then we got this one. Now people want another one.  So this time it’s right to ask the hard questions and demand the answer be given in a plan outlining how they will pay for what they claim they can do.   Let’s see if we have any takers.