David Swinford used to feign anger at me whenever I wrote a column insisting that state legislators — no matter how effective they were — deserved to be challenged every election cycle.
The Dumas Republican, who served in the Texas Legislature for several terms, usually would skate through without much opposition — although he did get a stout primary challenge late in his legislative career from Anette Carlisle, who now serves on the Amarillo College Board of Regents.
My only suggestion then was that all incumbents need to defend their record and it was up to challengers to make them do so.
Here we are in Amarillo, getting ready for the filing dates for our City Council. That rumble you hear around the city might be the sound of challengers getting ready to run against this five-person governing body.
We’ve seen the names of a couple of mayoral hopefuls. One of them belongs to Elisha Demerson, who currently serves on the council. Another name is Ginger Nelson, an economic development expert. The current mayor? Officially, Paul Harpole is undecided about seeking another term. I’m beginning to think he’s going to call it a municipal public service career.
What about the rest of the council. You have Randy Burkett and Mark Nair, two of the three change agents who were elected in May 2015. Nair also apparently is trying to decide whether to run again. Burkett seems a lock for another run.
Those two fellows clearly will need to defend themselves against challengers. They have some explaining to do, as does Demerson — the third new guy.
They engineered the departure of a competent city manager, Jarrett Atkinson. Then they brought in an interim manager, Terry Childers, who turned out to be, um, less than stellar; Childers is gone. There has been backbiting and needless bickering, causing Childers to bemoan what he called a “dysfunctional” atmosphere at City Hall. Atkinson wasn’t the only senior city administrator to hit the road. City Attorney Marcus Norris resigned and Assistant City Manager Vicki Covey retired. All in all, City Hall’s level of expertise took a serious nosedive … rapidly!
Then came the departure of Melissa Dailey — apparently at Childers’ insistence — from her post as head of Downtown Amarillo Inc. I’m still puzzled over that move, given the demonstrable success that DAI had delivered in downtown’s ongoing revival.
The fifth council member, Lisa Blake, is new to her job. She was appointed by her colleagues to succeed Brian Eades, who quit the council when he moved out of state.
Does the council deserves a stout challenge? Do all five incumbents — whether they’re running for re-election or seeking another seat on the body, which Demerson might do — need to account for the actions they have taken during the past two years?
Absolutely! Without question!
Although I no longer am into predicting political outcomes, it does seem a pretty good bet — at least at this moment — that the City Council ballot is going to contain a healthy number of candidates. They will seek to persuade voters that they are the best fits for the job of governing a city in midst of profound change.
Voters deserve choices. I’m hoping we get them as the municipal election cycle comes to a full boil.
