Pat Capello is Gone: What Now from CITCOM?

We'll acknowledge that one result of Capello's resignation has already been a surge of willingness to comment publicly on what is perceived as dysfunctional partisanship at The Table. That perception, in my mind, does not give sufficient weight to the fact that ninety percent of CITCOM's agenda has no partisan dimension and is resolved unanimously.

Before Pat resigned, I had drafted a suggestion to publish with my report of that CITCOM meeting: "Jim Rasor and Pat Capello can best serve the city they love by announcing that they will not be running for re-election." In my mind Pat and Jim have/had converted their intellectual differences into personal animosity, and their across-the-table exchanges had deteriorated almost to the low point which characterized the shouting exchanges between Rasor and now-former Commissioner Chuck Semchena.

CITCOM would be more effective and the city will be better served with Pat Capello and Jim Rasor gone, so I'm hoping that either Jim doesn't run for re-election or that he is defeated if he runs. With Rasor partially out of the way -- we can expect him to exert his influence in his social/political circles -- Kyle DuBuc and Mike Fournier will be free from any need to defer to him at The Table. Both Kyle and Mike maintain that my impression is wrong and that they are independent thinkers. Rasor didn't attend this meeting.

Putting aside for the moment the suspicion that the Democratically dominated commission will attempt to appoint yet another Democrat to replace Capello, here's what we'll be working with between now and the November election.

David Poulton has become more assertive these last several meetings, and he has pulled petitions to run again. It would be unrealistic, however, to expect that David can quickly replace Capello's strong, nit-picking voice at The Table. Peggy Goodwin seems dedicated to issues like crime prevention and suicide prevention, and has so far shown little interest during CITCOM's routine discussions about other matters which come before the commission. I suspect that, more than her remaining colleagues, Peggy will miss Pat. Politically, I would label David center-right and Peggy center-left.

That leaves us with four proudly self-proclaimed Democrats on what is supposed to be a nonpartisan legislative body. The four -- Ellison, Rasor, DuBuc, Fournier -- have already demonstrated their power as a bloc by getting the commission to enact a Human Rights Ordinance. That victory was short-lived, because the issue has been forced onto the November ballot, when we will learn whether the measurably increasing acceptance of the lgbt culture has been enough to get local voters to approve what they rejected a decade or so ago. Of more concern to less-broadminded straights is the fear that the DemBloc will push for such actions as having the mayor officiate at an lgbt marriage in the Commission Chamber.

All of which brings us to how so-far unopposed incumbent mayor Jim Ellison will perform for the next several months.

Let's start with the meeting which was made memorable by Capello's resignation. I labeled the meeting "great." Ellison was at his pre-2011 best, even guilty of being "too nice" while allowing Bill Shaw to run overtime again. Jim was kind to an asthmatic women who struggled to make her case against open burning. He listened attentively and thanked even the half of the 19 speakers during Public Comment who simply bitched -- about fences, the city's bicycle policies, the parking ordinance, lousy local roads.

He effectively chaired the discussions re the 21-item agenda, made no attempt to cut off Capello's constructive nitpicking attention to detail. He was aided in that even the more assertive Poulton stated his positions briefly and to-the-point. Except for Fournier's unfortunate tendency to ramble as he to often thinks out loud, everybody at The Table helped make it a routine series of decisions about nonpartisan issues. I labeled the meeting "great" because low-paid elected officials (really volunteers) conducted, with reasonable dispatch, the dreary business of local governance.

Perhaps because there was no purely social issue on the agenda, there was no need or opportunity for mayor Jim to display any Democratic bias.

Aye, there's the rub.
The DemBloc doesn't become a problem when discussing insect repellent or initiating a dog census, both of which fall under public health and safety. The bloc becomes a problem when it raises social issues. That proposition can get fuzzy, I know. For example, I'm pro-medical marijuana, and I justify my stance by thinking of the issue as one of public health and safety, not of social mores. All by way of saying that Mayor Jim Ellison has it in his power to influence the agenda in such a manner that the agenda itself does not become partisan.

Conducting the CITCOM meeting which will be remembered for Pat Capello's resignation at its end, Jim Ellison was his pre-2011 nonpartisan self. If he can retain that mindset . . .

Frank Versagi is the editor of Versagi Voice.