There are some things that need a delicate introduction and some that,well, not so delicate.
The new Administration got off to an admirable start with the symbolic injection of pride by organizing a City clean up.
That served it’s purpose.
Now let’s get to work.
As we infuse our new political order at the national level, we have to construct for its perpetuation at the municipal level.
Mayor Green -a designation that should be used very reservedly considering that he hasn’t ‘Mayored’ for about two decades – comes with the kind of recall we prefer to forget. Political evidence casts doubt on his principles and the same evidence shows that he was not in favor of the last PNC President , Desmond Hoyte, because Mr. Hoyte preferred to be more principled than president. PNC party documentation would show that this Green, was expelled from the party after a party committee found him guilty of miscounduct (paraphrase). Green then formed the Good and Green political party which was known more for the criminal predisposition of its members than not. Errol Butcher aka Flat Top and one of Georgetown’s feared criminals, was one of Green’s key members and was amongst an assortment of other unsavory types, prominently featured on Good and Green’ s list of ‘officers’. There is also copious political evidence of the party’s alignment with Rabbi Washington whose House of Israel was flagged as one of Green’s personnel sources. Political evidence reminds us that Hamilton Green agreed to share the Mayor mantle with the PPP; after elections; after the electorate voted for him and not for his agreed upon rotation. And, after he assumed office, physical evidence shows us that he was neutered by the PPP government which refused to fund the city, declawed by the municipality which was supported in boycotting his feeble efforts and detoothed by political plant, Carol Sooba, who all but shut the city down at the instructions of the PPP.
This is the backdrop against which I respond to those who are submitting that Local Government Elections can wait until after the ‘first hundred days ‘ because Hamilton Green will now have the opportunity to administer.
So I will add a little more.
A successful political administration understands that it has to incorporate the efficiency part of the business model to assure success. A large part of efficiency is the expertise of personnel .
Contrary to popular thought here, expertise is useful only to its level of pertinence and does not carry on ad infinitum. That’s why things become obsolete and expertise becomes irrelevant.
We all know of the type writer and of the once lucrative business skill of key punching. They served their purpose and created stepping stones to the current day technologies of PC’s and Tablets.
So, being a politician fifty years ago does not transfer that skill set to the modern day political arena – and I say skill set with due reservation.
The current City Council is more a team of warriors than facilitators and its partisan appointees seem incongruent to the new model of political leadership voted in a few days ago. The iconic picture of Hamilton Green chairing a City Council meeting at which Carol Sooba is in attendance is testament to the part that optics plays in politics.
There are two pictures here.
One is that of Carol Sooba sitting subdued at the feet of Mayor Greene.
The other is that of Mayor Green sitting subdued behind a desk that he hasn’t been able to man, mostly because of his political philandering and largely because his political frame of reference is decidedly passé.
The restoration of pride in the Garden City has to extend past the removal of litter and other unglamorous things that have become unwelcome fixtures..
I will end on that delicate note.