The situation at City Hall is becoming ever more reminiscient of the 2000 presidential elections. Once again, the courts will decide our fate.
The Mayor had until today to either sign or veto the illegal ordinance passed by the Council last week. On advice from the City's law department, he opted to do neither. So now the ordinance is in effect. But on Tuesday, the mayor pro tem (aka- vice mayor) councilman Skaggs filed a suit against the City in Jackson County court for violating the City charter and State constitution. The City Attorney had already written an opinion that sided with the Mayor's interpretation of the charter so he is sort of defacto disqualified from representing the City. Instead. two private lawyers will duke it out in front of a County judge to decide if Funk is right or wrong. There are enough liberal judges at the local level that I really don't have confidence this will go right. A loss here would probably require an appeal at the state level and I doubt there is the political will to press the issue that far.
"Oligarchy is a form of government where political power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society" (thx Wiki!) If the county validates the Council then that is what we have. The Charter becomes a suggestion and the will of the people and rule of law is subverted. The interests of the highly vocal and racists minority will become the law. According to some commenters on the Star, someone is even trying to get Jesse Jackson in KC this Feb (assumably in time for black history month). The NAACP was the first group to threaten a lawsuit against the mayor and the most vocal civic "leaders" were all black pastors from the City. Yet this is somehow not about race.
"Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." -Lord Acton
1 comment:
That is a great quote! Sadly true.
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