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Doug Clark: The Curse of the Two-Term Mayor trounces our old municipal jinx
You know, back when we all lived in blissful speculation about what horrors might be unleashed should some political upstart come along and break Spokane’s Curse of the One-Term Mayor?
No, this isn’t an excerpt from a “Jim Kershner’s 100 Years Ago in Spokane” feature.
I’m talking about olden days dating all the way back to last November, when Mayor David Condon trounced Shar, um, someone-or-other to become the city’s first two-term mayor since Dr. David C. Cowen practiced peerless dentistry.
And now we know what happens when someone tampers with the farces of nature.
Unlike my previously published predictions …
Mark Few did not leave town to become a Trappist Monk.
Bloomsday did not move to Deer Park.
The Spokane Transit Authority did not sell out to Uber. Though, come to think of it, that may not be such an unpleasant development.
As it turns out, breaking the one-term curse only spells doom and disaster for the poor doofus who breaks it.
Mayor Condon, namely.
What must this shell-shocked man be thinking these days?
There he was, atop the world on election night, regaling and speechifying amid the fermented grapy joys of victory.
And now …
Condon’s gone from “Yahoo,” to “Boo-hoo” faster than Johnny Depp can fling a cellphone.
Why, I wouldn’t wish Condon’s second term on a rabid weasel, or Tacoma.
The Condon administration is rightfully under a fog of public distrust for the shaky way it ousted police Chief Frank Straub last year.
It’s a royal mess, all right.
Giant lawsuits face the city as a result. Straub’s job remains vacant. The police oversight committee is still outta sight and out of mind.
Condon would have an easier time wrestling starving crocodiles than he does getting anything through the leftist and conspiratorial-minded City Council.
Last week City Attorney Nancy Isserlis, one of Condon’s closest cronies and a defendant in Straub’s lawsuit against Spokane, announced that she was bailing, effective July 1.
Condon, our news story reported, “called Isserlis a ‘tremendous asset’ and said her resignation would be a loss for the city.”
Translation: “Oh Nooo. Don’t go Nan-ceeee. Puh-leeese DON’T LEAVE MEEE!!”
And now, in the latest attack of municipal heartburn, Mayor Condon has fired off a scalding letter to Ben Stuckart, accusing the City Council president of using the Straub investigation to make political hay.
What? Accusing a politician of politicizing something?
That’s like accusing an asp of being venomous.
Stuckart wants to hire his own attorney to eyeball documents and testimony related to Straub, who was fired last year for his supposed misconduct and foul temper.
Condon, in his letter, says he won’t authorize another lawyer nor will he release materials because it could “compromise the City’s ability to defend itself.”
Not to mention the mayor’s ability to hide in the shadows.
“By demanding the release of attorney-client privileged documents,” wrote Condon, “Council President Stuckart places his political agenda above the public interest.”
The mayor needs a letter to say all this?
Condon and Stuckart work in the same City Hall of Mirrors, for Pete’s sake. Can’t he just walk down to Stuckart’s lair and yell at him face-to-face like a man?
Brother. All the backbiting and infighting that goes on in what passes for Spokane government is worthy of an HBO series.
“Game of Groans” they’d call it.
What price glory, Dave? If you ask me, this new hex we’re under, the Curse of the Two-Term Mayor, seems a lot worse than the old one.
Doug Clark is a columnist for The Spokesman-Review. He can be reached at (509) 459-5432 or dougc@spokesman.com.