For a guy rumored to be gearing up for a mayoral run in 2011, Jose Tosado’s recent griping about the state of the City Council chambers seems remarkably ill advised.
Peter Goonan reports in today’s Republican that Tosado, the council president, is upset that the chambers have still not been updated to accommodate the increase in the number of councilors triggered by the arrival of ward representation. That change added four new members, leaving the councilors to squeeze 13 people into the horseshoe-shaped arrangement of desks that previously seated nine.
The city has hired, for $64,000, a Northampton architectural firm to build 13 new mahogany desks (no particle board for these folks) and move the railing that separates the desks from the public. When the new Council was sworn in on Jan. 4, however, that work had yet to happen, forcing the councilors to pull up—gasp!—folding chairs around the existing desks, and leaving an angry Tosado spewing some potentially politically risky complaints.
"This should have happened a long time ago," Tosado told Goonan. "It's a sad statement of how city government is run. Sometimes I think all of city government should be privatized."
Put aside for a moment questions about, say, whether the councilors could make do with cheaper pine desks during these tough financial times, or whether it’s really too much to suggest that they might just suck it up and be cramped for a little while. Put aside, too, questions about whether the city has alternative uses for its money and time that might take priority to the renovation. (I’m not saying the project has been delayed because the city’s been throwing all its resources at fixing potholes, or improving its schools, or easing the tax burden on residents and business owners. I’m just saying what-if.) No, Tosado’s biggest political blunder just might be his use of the dreaded p-word: privatization.
Tosado’s larger criticism of “how city government is run” is a swipe at the incumbent mayor (and Tosado’s potential 2001 rival), Domenic Sarno. But his comments also raise the specter of outsourcing city jobs to private contractors. While that idea no doubt sits well with plenty of residents, it’s not exactly the way for a would-be mayor to endear himself to the municipal unions (and their allies in the larger labor movement) who still have the power to influence city elections—especially when he depends, as Tosado has, on significant campaign contributions from unions.
Meanwhile, it looks like the City Council will have to suffer the indignities of folding chairs for a bit longer: Goonan reports that the chamber renovations are to begin Feb. 1, with a projected completion date of mid-April. A city staffer told the newspaper that the project was held up by the funding approval and public bidding processes. In addition to the new desks, the chambers will also get new carpeting, electrical upgrades and, potentially, a new sound system—to amplify, it’s hoped, the voices of residents who come to meetings to voice concerns that have little to do with the comfiness of the councilors’ chairs.
