This was one of those votes that surprised me. When the Salisbury City Council results were in, I expected the vote for Council president to go between Debbie Campbell and Gary Comegys. Louise Smith was the swing vote in my eyes, as I knew Terry Cohen would support Debbie Campbell and Shanie Shields would be in Gary Comegys’ corner. I wasn’t expecting Smith to make her own bid for the Council post.
But as the story went, Louise Smith was indeed the swing vote – only it was for herself. She outpolled Debbie Campbell 3-2 in the vote for Council president then rewarded one of her supporters, Gary Comegys, by returning him to the vice-president post in a similar 3-2 vote.
So I found out about this vote last night by reading the other local blogs. By their reaction, you’d have thought they lost their best friend. Just take a moment to remember this, though – all through the campaign, Louise Smith continually noted she was her own person and only was lumped in with Terry Cohen and Tim Spies by the blogosphere and to a lesser extent by local media. To me, the proof of where Smith stands isn’t with her vote to hand herself the gavel. It’s going to be how well she follows through on her campaign mantra of accountability, starting with the new budget.
Some note that Smith’s already off on the wrong foot by not acting on Terry Cohen’s suggested work session. Personally, I think Cohen had a good idea but I’ll accept the reasons for not having the work session scheduled at face value for the time being. As far as the budget goes, I anticipate both Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen will have long lists of questions and the way these are treated by Louise Smith will go a long way in telling the tale on her Council presidency.
So let’s all take a “wait and see” approach to Louise Smith, at least until we see what sort of city budget scissors she has. If she can work with Campbell and Cohen to find the money to solve the priority issues the city has without the huge tax increase Mayor Tilghman wants, I think she’ll gain a good number of her supporters back.
Meanwhile, I have one other observation on this whole situation. Had the vote turned out as the bloggers wished, Debbie Campbell would’ve been City Council president because I’m sure Tim Spies would’ve supported her over Smith. What this proves once again is that elections do matter.
What it really means is that the majority of taxpayers in the City of Salisbury are Idiots.
The whine and complain about what they’re experiencing, yet they don’t get out there and vote.
Louise Smith knew all along that her alliance would be with Debbie & Terry and her vote for a deadbeat father not paying child support and going bankrupt was a major signal as to what’s to come.
Pamper it all you want Michael, you’re a nice guy, we all know that. However, Louise is a con artist who played everyone. It won’t last long before she’s wearing a white suit and surrounded by padded walls.
I agree, Louise didn’t seem to object to the promotion of her campaign by the many goodhearted Cohen and Spies volunteers, she let them carry her message and signs for her for many weeks. Her biggest campaign concern was the tardy audit which was covered up time and time again by the mayor and by the council– that most definitely includes Comegys. She also had to have noticed the brutish and loutish behavior of Comegys towards the citizens and towards Debbie Campbell. Her blatant reversal of her campaign promises and platforms are more than enough proof of her deception and dishonesty. If as another blogger suggests she was influenced by Dr. Bartkovich it is yet further proof of her allegiance with slumlords and developers, both he and his in-laws (RInnier) are both. She may very well rue the day she backstabbed those who had faith in her.
She was nominated for president and she did get the most votes, I guess I may have voted for myself also. However her decision to support Gary as city “leadership” is a joke, such a poor decision, she should known better~!! She has a long way to go to regain my trust.
People, it’s a four year term. We have a lot of the body of work to go before we can judge her merits.
For someone who purports to worship “accountability” Louise Smith looks two-faced in her affiliation with Ron Alessi (an expert in stiffing his creditors) and Bubba Comegys, who had to be held in contempt of court before he paid his child support obligation.
TP, I will certainly grant you that point. But more important to me is what she does with the taxpayer’s money, and the upcoming budget battle will help tell that tale.
Louise also told the public at the swearing in ceremony that she couldn’t get together with the council this week to discuss the budget, charter and resolution issues. However, she was seen at the GOB with Gary, Barry and John, what was so important that it over rides council duties?