According to the News’ editorial page on Sunday, that’s a quote from Elaine Agather, the (very confused) chairman of the Dallas Citizens Council, about Propostion 1–the City Council’s version of strong mayor.
It’s a start toward what? Toward a real strong-mayor system? The very system proposed under Blackwood that Agather helped defeat?
Under Prop 1, which Agather played a role in devising, the mayor can hire the city manager, but the Council can fire him. So the mayor hires someone, the Council fires him, and the mayor hires him back. It takes 30 days for a Council member to put an item on the city agenda, so that’s how long it would take for the Council to fire him again. But the mayor could then hire him back. And that could go on ad infinitum.
Call it Merry-Go-Round government, brought to you by the business geniuses who now pass for the Dallas Establishment. (Sigh.)
