Rewrite worst mayor list
Time magazine jumped the gun last month when it named the nation’s worst mayors. If the editors had known Jim West offered city posts to young men he was trying to seduce, Spokane’s mayor surely would have vaulted to the top of the list.
His competitors – Detroit’s Kwame Kilpatrick, Philadelphia’s John Street and San Diego’s Dick Murphy – don’t seem that bad compared to a moral black hole like West.
Street’s problem: Advisers have been embroiled in financial scandals. But Time found “no evidence that Street … is corrupt” and “even his critics agree he has made considerable progress” in achieving his goals. He’d be a breath of fresh air in Spokane.
The rap on Kilpatrick is that Detroit paid 25 grand to lease a Lincoln Navigator for his wife. That’s bad form, but at least he didn’t rent her a Lexus.
Murphy’s in hot water for a dicey deal to underfund San Diego’s municipal pension plan. The pact faces scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission, FBI and U.S. Attorney, Time reports. Now that’s a scandal with potential staying power. But it isn’t as icky as the one West continues to inflict on us.
And that’s the thing: Not all scandals are created equal. In fact, at least one U.S. mayor enjoys broad support and governing success despite regularly brushing off public indiscretions. I’m referring to Oscar Goodman, the Las Vegas mayor who was elected to a second term in 2003 with 86 percent of the vote.
Even in a city famous for flamboyant celebrities, Goodman stands out. A prominent criminal defense attorney, he even played himself in Martin Scorsese’s “Casino.” How cool is that? Not as cool as his war on scalpers who resold tickets to a free rock concert this summer that will mark the city’s centennial.
“I have referred to them as bums and pigs,” Goodman told KLAS-TV. “I don’t take it back … These people are doing something very, very wrong.” It’s enough to warm the heart of anyone who’s been gouged by ticket-hoarding creeps.
These days, as his official bio notes, the stylish bon vivant plays the role of “happiest mayor in the world.” When he’s not focusing on downtown revitalization, Goodman partakes of the legendary Vegas good life. And that often gets him into trouble.
He recently snapped shots of Playmate Irina Voronina to promote the city, for instance. A video on Playboy’s Web site shows shutterbug Goodman telling the topless model, “I like that pose,” the Associated Press reports. (Thank goodness for news services that save me from having to view videos like that myself.)
“I live to the fullest,” Goodman adds in the promotional clip. “I drink to excess, I gamble with both fists and when I eat, I eat like a gourmand. I can do whatever I want; I’m the mayor.” The last sentence sounds like a Jim West defense, but Goodman says things like that with his tongue firmly in his cheek. Or maybe that’s a martini olive.
After all, he recently told a group of fourth-graders that drinking is his favorite hobby and that he’d take a bottle of gin to a deserted island. “I’m the George Washington of mayors,” Goodman later told KLAS. “I can’t tell a lie.”
A mayor who commits his indiscretions in public instead of living a hypocritical life full of dark secrets? Sounds like a dream come true.
Quick, someone ask Vegas to trade us Goodman for West. Sin City seems like an appropriate destination for him, doesn’t it?