Our new Mayor and multiple councilmen have completed their first year on the dais. Numerous other councilmen just completed another year representing our fine City. The Watchdog grades each of their respective performances this year as follows:
1. Mayor Scott Wehrli. A-
Wehrli has done an admirable job during his first year. He’s a calm and steady presence on a dais which has clearly divided into camps. We find few things to criticize here other than we’d like to see him reign in public comment and overt attempts to filibuster meetings. He’s very nice, maybe too nice. Personal attacks, coordinated activist shenanigans, and general rancor should be dealt with and not pacified. That said, he’s been a good Mayor and is doing a good job.
2. Josh McBroom. A
He’s been an impactful leader from Day 1 and has single handily balanced the council politically. He minces no words and brings a forceful business approach to every agenda item.
3. Pat Kelly. B+
Well prepared and reasonable every meeting. He’s been stronger since Teresa Sullivan’s departure. He too often played the role of her lackey when she was on the dais. He’s grown over the last couple years and has become a very solid councilman.
4. Jennifer Taylor. B+
Tough and smart. She made mince meat of Benny White during their multiple battles over the last year. Our only knock is that she’s very hard to predict on the issues. Voters should know what they are getting. She’s unpredictable at times. Liberal sometimes, conservative sometimes. We’d like to see her better define herself.
5. Paul Leong. B
Leong is very smart and we usually agree with his votes. But he’s far too quiet. Leong is one of the most experienced councilmen on the dais both in age and in years holding office. He should be a far heavier presence. We like Leong and like what he says when he does speak up. But it’s time he started to speak up more often and lead.
6. Nate Wilson. B
He started off very quiet but is growing rapidly. He’s been a terrific addition and has stood out of late. At his current pace he will have a higher grade next year.
7. Benny White. B
He’s been more vocal and assertive since the Mayor race. He’s always a reasonable presence and kept his head up after a tough loss. He has had some negatives that hurt his grade. He stepped into a mess when he weighed in on his wife’s grant award which was an unforced error. He compounded this error and negative optics by lashing out at Taylor for questioning his involvement. Overall he’s a solid councilman.
8. Allison Longenbaugh. B-
Longenbaugh was well on her way to an A until she imploded at the last meeting. First by supporting the silly DEI agenda item and then by belittling its six figure cost. We started off this year with great concerns that Allison would use her position to push the same extreme progressive agenda which has failed everywhere it’s been tried. Over the last year we grew to like her and saw her as unexpectedly moderate. Now we are back to being worried about her.
9. Ian Holzhauer. D-
We could write a book about this one. In short he’s been a persistent source of drama and regularly throws his colleagues under the bus. He teases support for bold policy initiatives but never actually advances those initiatives. He has on multiple occasions crossed the line both online and on the dais into Code of Conduct violation territory but for reasons unknown he’s never been cited for one.
Hearing Holzhauer speak is to hear the string pulled on a chatty Kathy doll made in the form of cliched depiction of a shady lawyer/politician. Holzhauer would have received an F but how do we fail a military vet that can still run marathons despite being so catastrophically disabled that all of us are forced to pay his tax bills for him? This councilman needs to go.
Summary:
Overall this has been a solid council. 7 out of 9 get a B or better. Longenbaugh has the potential to make it 8 out of 9 next year. Unfortunately we see little chance that Holzhauer is anything but a drag on council. But you can’t win them all. As a collective this council is a solid one.
Benny is ranked too high. That guy doesn’t have a clue.
Benny should be a D.