Mayor Dave's Prejudice With a Halo

This whole Edgewater Hotel expansion rigamarole has really thrown Mayor Dave's true colors into sharp relief. Emily Mills briefly flirted with Cieslewicz's rank hypocrisy:

I’m not sure, for instance, how his declaration that we can’t leave decisions like these up to “a handful of unelected people” squares with his support of a similar body for the RTA.

What our mayor wrote on his blog was thus:

Second, under our ordinances, the decision of a handful of unelected individuals on the Landmarks Commission can only be overturned by a supermajority (14) of the twenty elected representatives of the people on the Madison City Council. This is fundamentally undemocratic.

Unfortunately Mills let this issue go after the above comment when she should have gone for the jugular. I think it deserves more attention because part of the job of mayor is to undermine democracy by appointing people to positions whose decisions cannot be checked by the citizenry.

You'd think someone so dedicated to the idea of self-rule would at least show a hint of regret or in some way lament how Fate has forced his hand when he goes about making appointments to the Alcohol License Review Committee. Did anyone hear the mayor utter "Woe is me!" when he threw democracy out the window by appointing Bill Clingan as the economic and community development director? I don't recall voting for Mr. Clingan.

Perhaps I missed it, but I also don't remember a democratic rallying cry issued forth from the mouth of Mayor Dave when he booted Carl DuRocher from the Transit and Parking Commission. And just how democratic is that shiny new RTA, to which Cieslewicz got to appoint two members, that can raise our taxes?

So please tell me, Mayor Dave, how do we citizens go about democratically checking the power of your appointees?

For him, it's all well and good when appointees do his bidding, but they suddenly become "undemocratic" when he doesn't get his way. Let us hope that he doesn't run for mayor again because, just as he justified his sacking of DuRocher, it's time for some new blood over on MLK.

Note to Ray Allen: Base your campaign on more than simply being anti-trolley.