In the past year this mayor has directed the most wasteful use of staff time and energy, in turn a significant number of the populace's time and energy for what? The two most glaring examples are those wherein Mayor Stocks was embarrassed and he manufactured an official format to retaliate.
When a room full of people turned their backs on Jerome Stocks as their new mayor he blanched and stammered. Within 6 weeks he'd choreographed a scheme to appoint a mayor who had the most votes at his or her last election and this mayor would pick his or her own deputy mayor. Of course the whole dance number between he and his partner Kristin Gaspar was to be his coup de grâs to position Princess Narcissus as the first of many of the crony club in the mayor chair.
This effort was thwarted several times, thankfully, by Bond or Muir who didn't play along. Nonetheless - time, energy and using up precious council attention from the people's business to Stock's annual embarrassment to justify abusing Teresa Barth's right to serve her constituency as mayor. See, her embarrassing revelations of Stocks has never been forgiven or forgotten. This 2012 election's Proposition K - should we vote for mayor position? Prop L -should it be for 2 years? Prop M - should it be for 4 years? It is all part of the original embarrassment of Stocks. He probably won't stop until he can buy the damn title outright.
The second monster waste is based on payback for the whole Arts Alive Banner debacle where Stocks made an ass of himself in treating Maggie Houlihan's image on the banners as a kind of personal threat or rebuke or something or other equally false. More than a year later and countless meetings, staff assignments, paid outside lawyers, ACLU, bogus subcommittee, tv time, lots of press ink (and digital band width) devoted to Stocks heartless petulance, yet need to justify / blame / deflect, etc.
On October 10, at what was to be the final time this abhorrent agenda item was to be aired, Lisa Shaffer spoke to the essence of this incredible waste.
So, on top of thousands of dollars and hours the council voted to adopt a terribly written and unnecessary sign ordinance for a non-existant risk to "avoid public controversy or the perception of any such figures both positive or negative." As Shaffer says, "Why is that a legitimate goal for the city?"
Why indeed? Public controversy and public perception are Mayor Stocks' seeming fixations. He can grow furious if he is called out, exposed or challenged. His failing in his own very fragile self-regard here has cost the city far too dearly.
Sometimes candidates could stand to be embarrassed, when they behave in contemptible ways.
