CARLTON FLETCHER: Albany city manager vote not about politics

Stand tall, don’t you fall. For God’s sake don’t go and do something foolish. You’re feeling it like everyone, it’s silly human pride.

— The Guess Who

It seems at times — frankly, most times — that the constituents of elected officials here don’t care so much about the day-to-day work of those officials, the votes they take on mundane stuff like approving contract bids, naming members to this committee or that, meeting state-mandated requirements or preparing a budget … unless, of course, said budget includes a tax increase.

Just give folks the juicy stuff: Will it cost me? Is anyone getting fired? Was there a little racial tension in the vote? Can I play the “special treatment” card? Did anyone say something foolish that gives us fodder for a jab in the Squawkbox?

Minus that, who cares? We’ll catch the sound bites on TV, homework done.

But a lot of those day-to-day decisions made by elected officials end up having a monumental impact on the community. Some even pave the way for economic prosperity or overwhelming calamity that lasts for years.

The Albany City Commission met with finalists for its city manager post Saturday. The candidates talked with commissioners one-on-one, answering questions selected specifically for them in an attempt to determine if they’re the right fit to run this quarter-billion-dollar organization.

What constituents should have started doing today is calling their commissioners to demand that they consider carefully each city manager candidate’s qualifications before voting for one to replace Tom Berry. Unfortunately, what many citizens in the city don’t understand is that Albany’s government has developed into a city manager-run organization. I shake my head when seemingly well-informed citizens blame the mayor for issues over which he or she has had little impact.

A James H. Gray could not have served as mayor under Albany’s current organization. Gray demanded — and had — too much control over the operations of the city to leave its business in the hands of a city manager or even in the collective hands of a city commission. But the city’s current-day mayor has much less control, serves more as the titular head of the government with little more authority than any of the other six elected officials on the commission.

That has nothing to do, by the way, with the personality of the person sitting in the mayor’s seat. It’s the kind of government that’s evolved in the city.

Unfortunately, because so few people express a genuine interest in the important business of the city government outside the back table at Pearly’s or the informal collectives that meet daily for coffee at Burger King, Krystal or Starbucks, the commissioners who are making important decisions like who will manage the city tend to play politics in making their choices.

If I go along with the other three who support Candidate A, they’ll back me when I have a close vote coming up. … If we put Candidate B in office, he’s going to appoint one of my friends to that high-paying job that’s open. … If we go with Candidate C, he’s weak enough that we can control him when it comes time to ask for stuff that has been voted down in the past. … I know Candidate D personally, and he owes me a favor.

All of these scenarios provide pathways to corruption that could easily bring the fragile workings of a government crumbling to the ground like an Oklahoma trailer park in a tornado. And even a whiff of potential corruption should be throwing off warning flares all over the city.

They all deny it, at least when they first take office, but politicians play politics. And the rumors that were circulating around the downtown Government Center Saturday as the Albany City Commission met with the candidates for its city manager’s position were as politically-based as any that ever surrounded a Chicago alderman’s race.

That’s why constituents should be calling their commissioners today to insist that their representative consider the candidates they interviewed Saturday carefully. What’s at stake is a whole lot more important than that pending yard work or, especially, the personal agendas of the people elected to make such decisions.