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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Edinger: Council Needs To Tone Down

Item: Personal politics: Coeur d'Alene City Council members look to put personality conflicts, testy meetings behind them/Tom Hasslinger, Coeur d'Alene Press

More Info: The longest tenured city councilman said he has never served on a council where arguing has been so commonplace. Disagreements in politics are par for the course, Councilman Ron Edinger said, but never has he served on a council where personality clashes and personal digs have occurred so frequently. "I think that sometimes it gets a little carried away," Edinger said Friday, a day after an at-times testy council workshop on Thursday in what has been a month full of testy city meetings. "Personal things get involved, and I think that's wrong."

DFO: I can't blame the majority of the council for being testy toward Councilmen Dan Gookin and Steve Adams, who rode into office by trashing the City Hall and the McEuen Field project -- and then sat back arms crossed while allies of theirs led a recall effort. Is the majority of the council suppose to grin and bear it when Adams throws a monkey wrench into a well-devised plan to pay for a sewer expansion because he's received some sort of divine insight into the Idaho Constitution? Civility is nice. But I also want elected officials to challenge colleagues when they are doing -- or have done -- something that the public should know about.

Question: Do you agree with Edinger that City Council members need to be more civil to one another?



Huckleberries Online

D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.