Friday, March 14, 2014

With the Stuart appointment as city manager... did Ridgefield win... or lose?

With the inevitable hiring of soon-to-be-former Commissioner Steve Stuart by Ridgefield, this chapter of the story closes.  While I wonder what his qualifications are to manage a city, (No MPA, no executive department experience, no particular executive knowledge of police, HR policies, transportation infrastructure and the like.)  his selective outrage aimed at Sen. Benton's hiring now showing up to be that much more political than substantive... given his own lack of qualifications to manage a city.

Combined with the information out there that Stuart's wife, Heather, is a major player in Maureen Winningham's hopeless campaign against Rep. Liz Pike, what does Ridgefield expect in the way of capital expenditures and transportation funding or any other assistance?  The ramifications of that kind of thing are difficult to know

Stuart ceases to be our problem and becomes Ridgefield's problem, avoiding the fate of fellow democrat Marc Boldt and landing a cushy gig in friendly environs.

Oddly, I am sorry it ended this way.  I get that Steve is a democrat and that we are not going to agree on the issues and approaches to the problems confronting our county... and it is OUR county.

Had Commissioner Stuart been concerned about the will of the people of this community, had he actually LISTENED to what we told him over... and over... and over again, he likely still would be our commissioner and used this as a launching pad for a bigger and brighter political future... even if it would have been somewhere else.

But he didn't listen.  He wouldn't listen.  And his legacy for this county will be crushing political defeat... inevitable political defeat on the CRC, light rail and the ballpark.

Regardless of the next elected commissioner's party, I sincerely hope that they put the will of the people first, ahead of the agendas of others and ahead of the agendas of themselves.

Good luck to the City of Ridgefield.  Ultimately, you may find that there's much more to the wanting than there is to the having.

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