On The City Counsel Presidency

Last week something my friend Bram (Hey Bram, how's it going?) posted at his blog caught my eye. Here it is:

On an unrelated note, Tonya Payne is now the odds-on favorite to assume the role of City Council President. It would not be inaccurate to describe her as a strong ally of the mayor, nor would it be inappropriate to examine her history with the Penguins as a window into her governing style.

Not really sure WHY it caught my eye but I checked with a few sources to see what was going on.

While pointing to some very interesting details (more on them in a second), a couple of my sources said that all you have to do is to remember Councilman Jim Motznik's bid to win to be City-Council Presidency in 2006 to see the inherent fluidity of city-council politics. You'll remember Motznik was sure he had enough votes to win but when the votes were actually counted Councilman Doug Shields won by a vote of 7-1. No matter who might be the odds-on favorite now, things as we all know can turn on a dime. And they probably will.

As a Buddhist friend once said, the only constant is change: nam myoho renge kyo.

One vote counter told me that Councilwoman Tonya Payne has been eyeing the presidency for sometime now. In exchange for her support (and the ward chairs she controls) of the Mayor, she wants to be council president. I was told that Mayor Ravenstahl "went for it" and could get her votes from council members Motznik, Deasy, and Harris. Her fifth vote would have to come from one the five remaining members; Shields, Peduto, Burgess, Dowd or Kraus.

Perhaps my favorite Deputy-Mayor Yarone Zober has been lobbying for the vote with one of those five (let's be honest it would have to be of the incoming three - Burgess, Dowd or Kraus). Perhaps as recently as last week at Lucky's in East Liberty. Perhaps in exchange for Chair of the Finance Committee.

But why, we should probably ask at this point, would all this be happening?

A little background. One of my sources told me of an attempt to impeach Council President Shields this past Summer. It was all about his bringing in the three candidates who at that point had won their respective nominations but had yet to be elected (Burgess, Dowd and Kraus) into the City-County building for some budget-type meetings. The plot failed, I was told, because a Council President could only be impeached for malfeasance or misfeasance and what Shields did was neither.

The Mayor and Council members Payne and Motznik all denied any knowledge of it.

On the other hand, it's been suggested that the Mayor is concerned about Shield's potential as a contender in the next mayoral election and about his ability to torpedo the mayor's agenda in the city-council. The allegiance between the Mayor and Councilwoman Payne is well known - and for some reason the Mayor and the City-Council President can't get their schedules to mesh for meetings.

Huh.

Perhaps the Mayor would be happier if Councilwoman Payne was City-Council President.

Again, it's all very fluid and, epistemologically speaking, this discussion inhabits that logical realm known as "reading the tea leaves." No one will know for sure who'll be elected city-council president until it's finally done. And no one outside of the major players has a firm grasp on all the details. All we can really hope for is to watch the shadows on the cave wall and guess.