The central problem
with city government in Portsmouth is not the form of government it has, namely
the mayoral or city manager variety. The central problem is the kind of men who
run for and get elected to city government. The men who occupy public office are for the most part failures. They are men,
usually, who have failed in business, in
a profession, or in a trade, or who are not now or perhaps have not for a long
time been gainfully employed and want the benefits and
the prestige of holding public office. No
form of city government is going to work with incompetent city officials,
whether they are elected or appointed, and whether the form of government is mayoral or city manager.
As an example of an
incompetent city official, take city solicitor John Haas. According to the Portsmouth Daily Times (29 April 2014), “Portsmouth
City Solicitor John Haas says he cannot represent Portsmouth City Council when
it comes to public records requests in the future.” Why not? Because, Haas told
the PDT, the city council “has placed my office in an untenable position.” What
does “untenable” mean? A tenant is “Someone who pays rent to use or occupy land, a
building, or other property owned by another.” The original and strict meaning
of untenable is that an apartment or
a house or an office for some reason
cannot be occupied, cannot be tenanted.
That is not the
meaning of untenable that Haas has in mind, (if you will allow me the liberty
of using “mind” in connection with him). Another meaning of untenable, and the
one Haas apparently has in what passes for a mind is a place or a position or
an office, such as the office of city
solicitor, that cannot be defended. But no one is attacking Haas or the office of
city solicitor. They are rather proposing to change the office of city solicitor from an elective to an appointed office. John Haas is obstructing city government by
refusing to carry out one of his responsibilities as city solicitor because he
doesn’t approve of the proposal of several councilmen to change the city
solicitor position from an elective to an appointed position. It is hard to
believe that a lawyer would think he has
the right to refuse to perform a duty of the city solicitor because he doesn’t think it’s a
good idea to change the office from elective to appointed. Changing any public
office from elective to appointed or appointed to elective is a long,
complicated, democratic process, as is spelled
out in the city charter.
But it is Haas himself
who is untenable, who is indefensible, who is not qualified to hold the office
of city solicitor. He is not qualified because he is in terms of his understanding of
the law, incompetent. He doesn’t understand that by refusing to handle public
records requests he is not fulfilling one of the duties of his office that he
swore to perform. He cannot choose which of his duties he is going to perform
and which he isn’t. The issue of whether the city solicitor should be elected, or
whether it is a bad or good proposal, is
not the issue. At no level, local, state, or federal, does government work that
way. But Portsmouth apparently is an exception and a public official is going to
be allowed to choose which of his duties he performs and which he will not. Fire fighters
are not allowed to choose which fires they are going to put out; police
officers which laws they are going to enforce; sanitation workers which trash
they are going to pick up; and deadbeat
dads are not allowed to decide which of their children they are going to pay child support for. But Haas
is going to decide he is not going to handle public records requests and the Portsmouth Daily Times is not going to point this flagrant dereliction of duty out to its readers? That’s not just untenable, it’s intolerable. Oh, and two more things. Haas like two other council members, Kalb and Malone, have declared bankruptcy. And didn’t Haas first get his foot in the door of the city solicitor's office by being appointed? Isn't that how many of these untenable, bankrupt characters start their political careers, by being appointed? As Snuffy Smith would say, “Isn’t that a crock?
When you consider the council members who began their careers as appointees, the list is not encouraging. Baughman was originally an appointee, when his friend and his next-door neighbor John Thatcher, conveniently resigned as Fifth Ward councilman. And then Baughman himself resigned before he could be recalled, making the appointment of John Haas possible in the endless appointee game of musical chairs that is orchestrated by Portsmouth’s powerful, unelected clique. Jerrold Albrecht first got on the council by appointment, and so did the notorious shyster Mike Mearan. James R. Saddler is the most recent appointment. Saddler had not shown any interest in city government previously, except when he had to appear in court for numerous speeding violations, including a DUI for which his license was suspended. For all those who prefer to begin their political careers by applying to the council for a vacated position rather than run in an election, we should have buttons that say not “I Voted,” but rather “I Applied.”
from “City Council Appointees: Portsmouth's Perennial Problem”
* * *
from “City Council Appointees: Portsmouth's Perennial Problem”
