It’s done.
Five new Amarillo City Council members have taken their oath of office and have settled in behind the dais at the City Council chambers on the third floor of City Hall.
A new era has begun. Right? Maybe.
I fielded an interesting question today from a friend who asked: Do you think the city will get turned around now? My answer: I am happy with the outcome of the election.
My friend’s question, though, seemed to suggest something with which I disagree. Although I was unhappy with much of the bickering, backbiting and backstabbing that occurred at City Hall during the past two years, I am not going to subscribe to a notion that the city had backslid dramatically since the 2015 municipal election.
Mayor Ginger Nelson declared her intention to ensure that Amarillo is a better place when she leaves office — eventually. “I see two ways to do that,” she said, according to the Amarillo Globe-News. “Everyone works and we work together.”
It sounds almost cliché, I suppose, for the new mayor to pledge political teamwork. Nelson does present a vigorous image as the new mayor. She spoke often during her campaign about the need for the council to move ahead as a single unit once it makes a policy decision.
I do not want that message to suggest a stifling of differences of opinion among council members. I am quite sure the mayor would resist any such implication.
What I do want, though, is for the council to unite behind a policy decision to ensure consensus and to let those who work in the trenches — and those of us who pay the freight while watching from a distance — that the council is moving forward with a unity of purpose.
The previous council didn’t always project that image. The sense of open dissent perhaps sent a message beyond the city that could be interpreted that Amarillo’s government wasn’t functioning as efficiently as it should.
To the extent that such perceptions turned the city in the “wrong direction,” I’ll accept my friend’s question about the need to turn the city around.
City Hall, though, has functioned well with professional senior staffers who continue to do their job with competence and dedication. I don’t sense that those qualities diminished — even as the city struggled to steady its administrative ship while it sought a new permanent city manager.
A new City Council has taken over. All five of them represent the same at-large citywide constituency. They all earn a whopping $10 per public meeting. They have taken this job on, I am going to presume, because they believe in public service.
I wish them well, good luck and patience as they strive to keep the city moving forward.
