Doug Clark : Didn’t take long for Verner to break promises

Sorry, Mary. Honeymoon’s over.

Let the record show that the grace period ended Wednesday morning, just eight days and change into Spokane Mayor Mary Verner’s fledgling administration.

The wheels fell off as I opened The Spokesman-Review and read the top-of-the-page headline:

“Advisers’ names kept secret.”

It seems our new mayor – who campaigned on the virtues of transparency and open government – is, as the story states, “keeping the names of her transition team a secret.”

You gotta be kidding me.

Wait a second. Wasn’t Verner supposed to be the fresh air antidote to the backroom, clandestine ways of the guy she knocked off in the November election?

I can hear ex-Mayor Dennis Hession speed-dialing Verner’s phone number now.

“Hello, pot. Kettle calling.”

Aw, Mary. Say it ain’t so.

It doesn’t count that some people have voluntarily released their names. It’s up to the mayor to open the books.

Is there something in the air conditioning at City Hall that fogs the mayor’s judgment once they step onto the 5th floor and settle into that cozy office with the great view?

Whenever a new mayor comes in I always get this icy chill down my back. I worry that the mayor is going to behave, leaving me with squat to write about.

I should have more faith.

These are, after all, politicians we’re dealing with.

So why has Mayor Verner jettisoned the traditions of past administrations and is NOT telling us who’s on her transition team?

“Some may want their names in the press and some may not,” said the mayor in the news story. “I would like to respect their privacy.”

Anonymity can be a blessing.

Like when you’re visiting a nudist camp.

Or when you’re playing footsie with Larry Craig in an airport men’s room.

Or when you’re snitching off a crack dealer to collect a Secret Witness reward.

But secrecy has no place on a mayoral transition team. That’s the public’s business.

What’s this? Oh, look. An e-mail from Tom Keefe just came into my computer mailbox.

“A selective and secretive group of citizens meet in a private home to discuss changing the government, their names a closely guarded secret. A meeting of old guard members of the Communist Party USA, perhaps?

“No, just a meeting of the Mary Verner transition team.”

Good one, Tom.

This is Accountability 101. Even Hession named all 18 members of his transition team.

I certainly want to know who’s helping shape the Mayor Verner policies.

I want to know which brains the mayor considers worthy enough to pick.

(She didn’t ask me to participate. Go figure.)

Maybe she’s embarrassed to let us know who’s on the thing.

Maybe there are TV preachers? Or casino managers?

Mainly we should know the identities because we deserve to know.

Silly me. I still cling to the naïve notion that government should be open.

Oh, well, so much for Mayor Sunshine. Way to go, Mayor Mum’s the Word!

What a lousy way to start an administration.

“And on a happier note: my recent “I Gave. Really. I GAVE!” button drive took in – get ready for it - $1,227.75 for Second Harvest Food Bank.

I took the cash and checks over to the food bank late Tuesday afternoon.

I’m grateful to everybody who gave. The donations poured in from all over the Inland Northwest.

And thanks also to those of you who included hilarious or thoughtful notes along with your gift. One recent envelope I received contained a donation and – no kidding – a used (blood-flecked) fly swatter.

It supposedly came out of a Colfax tavern and was meant as a good luck charm.

Every day I come to work is an adventure.