Why is the common council waiting to fill Esslinger's seat? We just had an election, seems to me it is perfectly logical to appoint the 4th place finisher. How it could possibly be seen as "more democratic" for the 6 council members to hand pick the 7th member is beyond me. Isn't that why we went to an elected mayor, because we didn't want the council members deciding who the mayor would be? Why is it suddenly OK to disregard the people's wishes and interview and select a councilor rather than appoint the next highest vote getter? Seems to me it flies in the face of democracy.
Next, will this council make changes so that ANY sitting councilor loses their seat when running for mayor and would only be on the council if elected mayor? It seems wrong to only penalize 1/2 the council if they would choose to run for mayor and we really don't want to be appointing a councilor to a seat every 2 years. I'm not holding my breath that the council will even consider fixing this problem, but they should.
I will be watching carefully to see if the new mayor is able to keep any of his promises to taxpayers and if not what the excuses/reasons are. At the end of 2 years, will a majority, half, a quarter, any more than last year, of our streets be fixed? Will there be any new development or will developers find the Oshkosh Common Council to be unfriendly? Will anyone care? Will our streets still flood 5 years from now? Will all areas missing sidewalks have them in the next two years???
I'm not optimistic, but I am willing to watch with an open mind to see what kinds of decisions this new council makes.
