Next up: The mayor’s excessive use of electricity
We hope the Santa Fe New Mexican’s investigative staff will look into this problem: We have heard, from reliable sources, that Mayor Alan Webber negligently forgets to turn off his kitchen lights while devoting his nights to meetings or staying up late while wading through reams of paperwork. Also, while we lack absolute proof, we understand he spends hours each day on the telephone talking to constituents about their problems. Telephones use electricity and the mayor treats electricity like a renewable resource. Imagine the money he wastes.
Oh, speaking of money, how dare the new mayor live in a large house. Does he think, just because he worked for 40 years, day and night (there’s the electricity thing again), running the Harvard Business Review and creating Fast Company magazine and working on the staff of the city of Portland, Ore. (as the mayor’s administrative assistant), that he has the right to spend the money he earned? Unheard of. Who among us would think of using our money to buy a nice house? We also suspect that he gives money to nonprofit organizations, charities and the poor. Disgraceful.
On top of all of this, he had the unmitigated audacity to put a fence with a gate around his property — to keep his two dogs off the street. Again, we do not have all the facts, but we feel certain he does not have a kennel license. Really, two dogs! Buy a hamster and keep it in a little cage like the rest of us.
While expressing our unbiased opinion, we feel compelled to say that the new mayor should never be allowed to make a mistake. Nor should his desire to bring us all together color our thoughts as we seek to be divisive and to keep old animosities alive. How dare Mayor Webber not immediately know how to deal with every governmental problem, including those inherited or endemic to the system. How dare he try to find new solutions that might help Santa Fe.
How dare he be human and make mistakes! And, how dare he admit, as with the water problem at his home, that he made a mistake. This man is not true political timber. He needs to follow in the footsteps of great leaders like Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who blamed his wife for buying expensive furniture, or Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, who blamed his aides and staff for excessive spending. Webber better keep his former day jobs, like moderating international meetings of world leaders. Do we need a man who doesn’t pass the buck or blame someone else? He is clearly out of step with today’s definition of leadership. Ask President Donald Trump.
We say, cut Mayor Webber no slack. After all, he has been mayor of Santa Fe for almost two months. Let the chips fly off our shoulders and land where they may: Unbiased observers like us, and various reporters, who are closely watching the mayor, have many axes to grind. Can you imagine how overworked we are looking for houses with gates in Santa Fe? And, how long it takes to measure people’s homes? We are so busy “projecting our neuroses,” as therapists say, that we have no time for old-fashioned reporting. Forget Adolph Ochs’ dumb slogan “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” Let’s continue to air petty grievances and accusations to create division to make the mayor’s job even harder.