Image is everything, tennis pro Andre Agassi once quipped. If so, officials in the City of Harrisburg have some serious work to do to restore theirs.
It’s painful to say, but once again, people throughout our region have been shaking their heads and laughing at what can only be called tragic dysfunction in the city’s governance. Now that the mayor and city council seem to have met halfway to resolve their differences, there may be hope of turning the page on this difficult chapter in the city’s history and starting afresh.
This week, in a 4-3 vote, wiser heads prevailed and city council ended a years-long impasse with Mayor Wanda Williams and approved Gloria Martin-Roberts as director of the Department of Building and Housing Development. But as the three council members who voted no rightly noted, the vote came 645-days after Williams appointed her to the position on an interim basis.
City council had reason to feel offended.
The law requires city council to approve mayoral appointments, but Williams did not present Martin-Roberts to the council for an up or down vote until this week.
And, as City Council President Danielle Hill well noted, Martin-Roberts only appeared before the council after it filed a contempt of court petition to force her to do so…