Davenport, Iowa Elections

It's a nice, cool day here on West 8th Street! About 3/4's of the leaves have fallen off of the trees. Some although are completely "neckid" and others look like the crisp 26 degree lows haven't affected them at all. But most are quickly losing what adornment they have in the gusty winds that have been blowing around town.

Speaking of "gusty winds"...(Hows that for a segue?)
A few days ago, my home town elected 5 new alderpersons and a new mayor.

Note: Alderperson = Not an alderman nor a alderwoman but a ALDERPERSON! Yes....very PC isn't it? :-)

Mr. Bill Gluba garnered 60% of the vote to defeat Phil Yearington.
Here in the 3rd Ward, Bill Boom defeated the incumbent Keith Meyer to be our "representative".

I'm going to go a little bit out of my normal routine here and give a few opinions on what this all means for the great City of Davenport. And please keep in mind that they are indeed "opinions" !

First of all I want to talk about the 3rd Ward which is the ward I live in and the Ward the major part of West 8th Street is in.

It was time for Mr. Meyer to go. He had much support during his first 2 terms as 3rd Ward alderman, living only a few blocks from West 8th Street on Marquette St.
Keith was somewhat of an eccentric. Many would say he was "all" eccentric.
Many times disheveled and unkempt in public, his demeanor was usually that of a kind old man. But as time went on, it seemed he became more spiteful and angry.
Much of this was because of people like Charlie Brooks, may he rest in peace, and Jamie Howard whom Keith got off on the wrong foot with by wishing her a "Black" Christmas during a committee of the whole session.
At the time, I could almost understand Keith's explanation of the whole thing....almost. On the other hand, Jamie took exceptional offense to the comment and thus started a tumultuous relationship which would work to the detriment of our great city.
Keith always sided with the "little people". Which only made sense since they were the main part of his support.
But what was his undoing was his bitterness from being lambasted constantly by other aldermen to the point where he felt it necessary to retaliate by accusing others of lying and other forms of deceit.
Near the end, Keith refused to vote one way or the other for motions put before the council. When interviewed by local newspapers, he refused to give his age or respond to their questions.
Keith would ask questions that the other alderpersons did not want asked nor did they want to answer. Sometimes his questions were off subject but some times so much right on the money that he would catch people with their guard down.
Weather it was because of his conspiracy type thinking or the determination of the other alderpersons to push through their agenda, Keith became totally ineffective as a representative.

And while I'm on the subject of a "representative" I want to scold those, including our local newspaper, The Quad City Times, for insisting that we were choosing our "leaders".
If I vote for a leader, I think of voting in a presidential election.
But our alderpersons are NOT leaders so to speak but REPRESENTATIVES. It is their job to represent their constituency, not necessarily lead them.

Keith played the part of being a Representative to a fault. Most of the other alderpersons wanted to be leaders. Again, this may have been a big part of what ailed our council.
All in all, I would have liked to have a "Keith Meyer" Light. Someone who would know how to choose his fights better. One who could take a punch and keep on keeping on.
In the end, Keith let himself get knocked down too many times....seemingly punch drunk most of the time.
It really was too bad, because Keith Meyer is a good man!

Unfortunately, I believe that our council is now pretty much a rubber stamp for the Davenport Chamber of Commerce otherwise known as Davenport ONE.
We will see exactly where this will take us but I believe this council will be more focused on helping the business sector thrive and support new business rather than street, sewer or sidewalk repairs and putting more police on the street.


Your author in his next blog will discuss the new (and old) mayor of Davenport.