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TOUGH MAYOR
Vice President John Nance Gamer famously described his posi
tion as 'not worth a pitcher of warm spit' He is now better remem
bered for that remark than for his effectiveness in shepherding
President Roosevelt's early New Deal legislation through Congress
and in blocking the later New Deal proposals.
Our Mayor Heidi Davison could say the same thing about her job.
You may recall that the price we paid to make unification acceptable
to our non-Athens, Clarke County citizens was to neuter the mayor's
office. The City of Athens was headed by a "strong' mayor—with
the power to hire and fire managers and department heads and to
control the budget—and our country cousins wanted no part of
coming under that kind of domination after enjoying their more
laid-back county commission.
I wrote a column recently about Mayor Davison which both her
friends and her detractors took as anti-Heidi. As much as I would
like to strengtnen my frequently lacking credibility with the other
side. I've got to say that I am a strong supporter of our mayor. I
disagree with her on several issues, but I think she does a good job
with a thankless task.
Indeed her task is worse than thankless. She is, as were her pre
decessors Doc Eldridge and Gwen O'Looney, a lightning rod for all
the complaints against city government without being able to do
much about them. Gwen was our first Athens-Clarke County Mayor,
and her election profoundly shocked the crowd formerty accustomed
to calling the shots. They never forgave her for having the effron
tery to run for that office and win, and
they fought her the whole time she’
was in it They even had to endure her
beating them a second time when she
won re-election against everything
they could throw at her.
Doc, on the other hand, came well-
known to the in-crowd. He is an
Athens native and a businessman, and
he was first elected to the commission, where he served effectively
and learned the government Doc is about the friendliest guy you'll
ever meet and you met him everywhere when he was mayor. But
after four years even Doc had enough people mad at him that he
lost his re-election bid pretty decisively.
Is Heidi headed in the same direction? That's the question I
tried to raise in that previous column, and I hope the answer is
'no.' But the plain truth is that the deck is stacked against her, or
more to the point it is stacked against the office, whoever is in it
We've got what we voted for. a 'weak" mayor with a strong man
ager. In our form of government, we have a professional manager,
meaning that the he is trained to run a government according to
the principles of good management In other words, we have a
bureaucracy. There are of course advantages both ways. If you let a
politician run the government, you get a lot of politics. If you let a
professional manager run it you get bureaucracy. That's what we've
got. Moreover, we've got an entrenched bureaucracy, meaning that
most of the manager's staff and the department heads have been
around for a while. They pretty much run things they way they want
to, and most of what people
don't like about the govern
ment is done by the man
ager and his staff and his
department heads. The
mayor can't do much more
about it than you or I can.
Sure, the manager and his
crew operate according to
the laws passed by the
mayor and commission, but
there again the mayor can't even vote except in case of a tie. She
can decline to appoint the manager, but that opens an almost
unmanageable can of worms. Doc and Gwen both went through that
process, and it wasn't easy. And whatever manager you appoint is
just going to start right over building up the bureaucracy.
So, the mayor is in a really weird position. She heads the gov
ernment and has to answer for it yet she can't even speak for the
commission or influence it directly. That's what we want and that's
what we've got Fortunately, we've also got an energetic and intelli
gent mayor who understands Athens in all its many facets and is
learning low to use the slender powers of her office, such as her
role in regional transportation policy.
It is inevitable that a mayor who is virtually powerless makes an
easy target for those wanting to hit somebody who can't hit them
back. (Sorry, Doc) Ilfs easy to blame Heidi for all the ills the gov
ernment is heir to. There are plenty of people ready to tear her
down in favor cf themselves or somebody else. Just don't count me
among them, because in spite of my own criticisms, I think overall
she is doing a good job and has the potential to do even better.
Poto McCommons Editor & Publisher
She heads the government
and has to answer for it,
yet she can’t even speak
for the commission or
influence it directly.
We’ve got what we
voted for: a “weak”
mayor with a
strong manager.
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