In Deep Dark Debt, & Up the Creek

without the proverbial paddle is Cascade city with Clerk Shelley Annis, leaving to take a position at Williamsburg.

I know I am not alone in suspecting Mayor Henry is responsible for the loss of two good and one excellent employee—a decent cop, whose sexual orientation wasn't to his liking, a city administrator, whose MO didn't suit the Mayor's fancy, and now, a reliable clerk of almost a decade.

Of course, the mayor doesn't deserve all the credit. He couldn't have pulled it off without the votes of his ole boy clones on council: Staner, Kearney and now Ed Recker, who would rather squander $8,000 plus with Callahan to hire an administrator we don't need anyway, than give a woman who has proven herself honest and competent a chance.Of course, nobody blames Shelley. YOU GO, Girl!!!

This is a democracy and we get what we vote for, though you can't always know.  I enthusiastically voted for Pat Kearney. Having known him since we were kids, I was in his sister's class for 17 years, his older brothers alternately throughout the grades and respected the intelligence of the entire family. It's been pure consternation watching a bright guy taking his cues from a used car salesman who spent too long in Texas.

The part of this story that makes critical eyes wide is the fact that Williamsburg, a town which is a tad over 3,000 people doesn't have an administrator. Since the position was inaugurated here 25 years ago, I have wondered why we are spending almost $70,000 for a job a clerk could do. Could have done. Now we have no choice.