COUNTDOWN TO A NEW BEGINNING

In a matter of a few days, the City will once again have change in the running of City Government.

Ed FitzGerald will take over as Mayor, Council will start with 2 new members in Tom Bullock and Mike Summers, a third new face will be arriving shortly after with the filling of the at-Large vacancy.

Council will also be lead by a new President for the first time in many years. My guess would be Mike Dever would assume that leadership role. I will be curious to see if the Council members will vote for the new President with one seat vacant or wait until the at-Large vacancy is filled.

Who will fill that at-Large slot, I have heard rumors as to various names and I can only confirm one name as to have already submitted their paperwork. The names bandied about are Dan Shields, Brian Powers, Joe D'Angelo. None of these names that I have identified can be confirmed as submitting their paperwork.

One Council member expected about 20 people to submit their names, whether that is the case we will have to wait and see after January 4th.

On Tuesday, January 1, 2008 a new year begins with new faces in leadership of this City, however, the problems are old and the identity of those problems is simple, its the fixing of those problems that will be hard. It is going to take hard work and compromise of beliefs to get things done.

Let's make this a Bi-Partisan approach!

UPDATE:
Since writing and posting of this Dan Shields has confirmed on the Observation Deck that he has submitted his name for consideration. So that makes two candidates for the slot. I certainly hope that the Council members make some of this process open so that nobody can claim that the fix was in on the selection. But, it wouldn't surprise me if they already had their guy selected and are just waiting out the timing for other people to submit their names to make it look somewhat legitimate.

Here is another possibility: Council could just sit on the vacancy until April 1 and then by rules of the Charter, Mayor FitzGerald could appoint someone to the post. That would certainly cause a stir! Then you can go back to this post.