The Mayor stays

My last post dealt with an issue here in Omaha about the mayor and the attempt to recall him from office. I personally didn't agree with the idea of the mayor being recalled but was a supporter of any citizen exercising their rights within the law, no matter how stupid that law is. The election was held and the citizens who reside in Omaha decided that they did not want their mayor recalled and so he will at least finish out his term. Obviously there were some tough feelings on both sides of this issue and even though I don't live in the city and was not able to vote, I was not exempt from having strong feelings about the whole deal.

For one I say the mayor's office brought this whole mess onto themselves. Think about it, there might be a few folks out there who want to recall a mayor in any given city. But it takes quite an effort to actually get the mayor recalled, and in this case it takes some unhappy citizens to do so. Make no mistake the mayor only escaped losing his office by a small margin. There were plenty of unhappy citizens willing to go to the poll and vote for his recall. This recall attempt may prove to be easy by comparison when you consider the task of continuing to lead a city that is divided.

Many of the mayor's supporters took issue with the law for recalling a mayor and many said it needed to be changed. Well as of right now it appears that is in the works. I find it funny however that the mayor's office and his supporters complain about a law that was used against them, when just years ago the current mayor's predecessor had no problems using ridiculous laws to get what he wanted. Mayor Mike Fahey used ridiculous annexation laws to forcibly annex the town of Elkhorn without a vote against the will of the people. You see here in Nebraska if a town has less then 10,000 people residing there a municipal like Omaha can come in an annex that town without even needing a vote from the people. Sounds real American doesn't it?

Now right up front let me tell you that Elkhorn is my hometown. It is where I grew up and where I went to school my entire childhood. So does that play into my emotions on the issue? HELL YEAH! But I don't see how that matter since facts are facts. The town of Elkhorn tried to fight back by annexing other land that would bump them over the 10,000 resident requirement, but Omaha put their plans into motion and would be able to annex Elkhorn before they would be able to accomplish that. Now understand that Elkhorn was not some town that couldn't take care of itself. This town had it's own public works, fire dept, police dept, school system, mayor and city council. Regardless of all that though Omaha decided they knew what was best for the people of Elkhorn and forcibly annexed the town against the will of the people who live there.

Now I don't like the people who were behind the recent attempt to recall the mayor of Omaha. I think they were some dirty folks with plenty of bad ideas of their own. But, I am not going to cry any tears in defense of the mayor's office. If the office of the mayor of any city wants to play fast and loose with the rules and look to do things in such a way that is against the will of the people, then I don't want to hear any whining when citizens play fast and loose with the rules to do things that is against the will of the mayor.