Almost four years ago, Linda Thompson entered the mayor’s office vowing to work closely with the Harrisburg City Council.
As former council president, she seemed to understand how vital it was to forge alliances with council members, who had felt alternately ignored and attacked under former Mayor Steve Reed.
Therefore, it’s more than surprising that Thompson’s rocky relationship with council may have been the Achilles’ heel of her administration, a fact she seemed to acknowledge at this morning’s State of the City address at the Harrisburg Hilton.
During the question-and-answer period, she advised her successor as mayor and members of City Council to tend to their relationship, to put in an effort to work together to get things done. Excellent advice indeed. But then why did Thompson have such a continual problem with the legislative branch of the city’s government, the very body she headed for several years?
As with so many things in this city, the root of the problem lies in the near-dictatorship of Reed’s mayoralty.
In his collection of columns, “City Contented, City Discontented,” former Patriot-News writer Paul Beers describes the early years of Reed’s administration. Beers, who ceased writing his column in 1984, appeared optimistic about the young man’s prospects, but sagely noted his combative, take-no-prisoners approach to governance.
Beers lived long enough to see Reed continually bump up against and do battle with council through multiple terms. When he couldn’t co-opt council members, Reed sought either to go around or through them, regarding them more as an impediment than an ally.
By the time Thompson beat Reed handily in the 2009 Democratic primary, the consequences of years of unchecked executive power and profligate spending were becoming clear. So, if anyone should have understood the necessity of working with, not against, council, Thompson should have been that person.
But, bizarrely, she wasn’t.
Almost from day one, Thompson adopted Reed’s combative style, going to war with council after a majority rejected her first budget, which called for large increases in property taxes and water rates to cover incinerator bond payments. She followed with battles over Harrisburg Authority appointments, her ombudsman, her spokesman and, most importantly, various financial recovery plans. She fought with members of her own staff, the public and the press.
When asked why council opposed her, she usually responded harshly that it was all political, that a majority wanted Controller Dan Miller to replace her as mayor. But those of us who attended every council meeting knew that ambition and political spite weren’t what drove them.
The council wanted to be consulted, not dismissed; respected, not rolled over. In addition, the council was adamant in tossing aside any remnant of Reedism. It rejected the notion that residents should pay the price for the former mayor’s financial chicanery and buckled every time Thompson proposed hiring another group of high-priced consultants.
So, yes, Thompson offered excellent advice this morning (even though she stuck most of the blame on council). It is absolutely vital that the next mayor establish and nurture healthy relationships with council. How might he do that?
To start, the next mayor must attend every City Council meeting, even if it means just sitting there in the audience. It sounds so simple, but is something that neither Reed nor Thompson did, evidently believing it to be beneath them.
Doing so, the mayor will learn so much: the airing of issues behind legislation; what makes various council members tick; the challenges members face; what the public cares about; which issues in the city are emerging that haven’t yet hit the mayor’s radar.
It would also would give the mayor valuable face time with council members, who, busy with their daytime jobs and lives, typically only see one another at meetings and see the mayor even less often.
Otherwise, the mayor should be respectful of council members and their positions, friendly, willing to give and take. He should keep his door and phone lines open and get to know their interests and concerns. He needs to regard them as a vital part of the Harrisburg community and the city’s future.
The next mayor needs to build alliances on City Council, doing all the things that Thompson didn’t begin to do until it was too late. Things that, just maybe, would have given her the second term that she’s been denied.
