How Our City Commissioners Talk

Commissioner Mike Fournier talked a lot during the first 2014 CITCOM meeting.
It must be said that Mike did almost none of that rambling, thinking-out-loud stuff he had become notorious for earlier in his term. Both he and CITCOM benefit from this change.

At the other end, newcomer Sharlan Douglas -- after her colleagues had rambled quite a while about the pluses and minuses of "incentivizing" city employees to make workplace suggestions -- briefly offered something like, "We seem to have a solution for which we are seeking a problem."

Mayor Pro Tem David Poulton almost never comments when his comment won't add information or help move the dialogue along. Dave said very little.

Second newbie Jeremy Mahrle has hit the ground running and has quite a bit so say but, so far, does very little talking just to hear his own voice.

Serious-minded Peggy Goodwin comes through succinctly yet short of tersely whether she is providing or seeking information.

Heavily black bearded Kyle DuBuc always look sinister, even when he's smiling, but his comments tend to be shorter than anyone else's than Poultin's.

And mayor-for-life Jim Ellison is always the most focused both with his own comments and in chairing the meeting. Jim gets emotional now and then, but is almost never out of control.

All of which means that CITCOM meetings are likely to be more productive but less exciting than in the good old days when we had Andrzejak, Drinkwine, Rasor, and Semchena at The Table at the same time.