The City Council will hold its annual organizational meeting this week and will likely look to an experienced face to lead it through 2012.
City Councilman Tom Smith, R-1st, is expected to be the council’s next president, resuming a role he has held many times. Smith is entering his fourth consecutive term on the council – the longest streak of any current member, so his selection would come as no surprise.
Two Republican members of the new council, speaking anonymously, said Smith will be the majority party’s choice to lead. Republicans will have six of nine council seats this year. The GOP held its organizational caucus the week before Christmas, according to one source.
“I would say he’s going to be the candidate,” one councilman said of Smith.
Smith’s selection as president comes with a caveat, however. According to one councilman, it requires Smith not to schedule council meetings on the occasional fifth Tuesdays throughout the year. Smith had used those dates in the past to discuss long-range policy, but apparently most in the majority party would rather use that time to spend with friends and family.
Fence sitting
Mayor Tom Henry believes the Indiana legislature will devote almost all its efforts to debating right-to-work legislation, but that does not mean he plans to take sides in the controversy.
In a recent interview, Henry said he sees both sides of the issue involving unions and forced dues.
“To come out and say one side is right totally, one side is wrong totally, I’m not going to go that far,” Henry said. “I see some value in each, but I also see the ability to abuse.”
Henry said there have been situations across the country where unions have overstepped, but he said corporations have done the same thing numerous times. He said he was particularly concerned with the gap in pay between regular workers and executives.
Who’s whose boss?
The inauguration of Councilman-elect Geoff Paddock, D-5th, will create a somewhat unusual relationship between him and the council’s research assistant.
Paddock is executive director of Headwaters Park, where Council Legislative Administrator Molly McCray is a board member. With McCray answering to the council for her day job and Paddock answering to the park’s board, each is essentially the other’s boss.
Both laughed about the oddity but said it should not affect council or park business. They both said they have a good, friendly working relationship that should continue.
Plus, each is only one member of the board of directors, so any malice would have to be shared by others.
