Not sure if there’s any other comment on this, since I’ve not checked on the other local blogs yet today. I’ll do that afterward, but given how Bill Reddish’s interview (or maybe inquisition) of Louise Smith went this morning, I thought it deserved comment. And the fact my name came up in the conversation got my attention.
There were three main topics discussed. In order of time spent, I think it worked out this way. One was Smith’s ascension to the City Council presidency, another the budget, and finally the “secret meeting” she had with the mayor and a couple councilmen. With all of this, there was an undertone that Smith was hesitant at best about being interviewed and eventually Reddish accused her of ducking his questions.
In Smith’s words, originally she backed Debbie Campbell for the council president post but decided to heal the rift in city government by making herself president, as she was a part of neither “team”. Smith saw herself as “her own person”; an independent who happened to be lumped in with fellow Councilwoman Terry Cohen and unsuccessful aspirant Tim Spies during the campaign. In her thinking, voting against this grouping would prove her independence.
I can buy the logic of Smith’s contention, although it probably would’ve been better to express it in another way. People were voting for change and in that respect Campbell would have been a better choice. Louise voted as she did to prove herself beholden to no one, but proved to disappoint many of her supporters.
There was a big flaw in her budget arguments though. For the sake of this discussion I’ll grant that the 3 cents for increasing salaries and benefits is necessary. But the budget is not a static number, and the cuts Bill Reddish brought up were valid ideas to slash the expenditures. And it’s quite possible that cuts that would have offset those 3 cents’ worth of increased salaries and benefits were there for the taking. Smith’s assumption that the budget just had to go up 3 cents’ worth of property tax increase doesn’t hold water.
But I’ll give Smith the point on her account of the “secret meeting”. When Reddish noted that Louise had told him the meeting was set up ahead of time, well, that morning is ahead of time. And personally I have no problem with Louise Smith meeting with the mayor. Yes, she could’ve set up the Council work session that Terry Cohen requested (and probably should have) but it sounds like she was determined to forge ahead with the budget as she saw it.
As a person who’s sat in the “hot seat” before (under much friendlier circumstances), I know Bill Reddish can be passionate and sometimes uses his microphone as a bully pulpit (as in “View Across the River”.) However, this was the first time I’ve heard where he’s really lost his cool in an interview – he was practically shouting at some points. I know Bill loves the city and the Eastern Shore and he means well. Because of that I’m sure he’s very disappointed that Louise Smith has thrown in with people he considers the folks holding back Salisbury (witness his comment regarding this being a Mike Dunn redux.) It just seemed a bit less professional than normal. (To be sure, I wish he’d hammer Wayne Gilchrest or Ben Cardin like that during his regular interviews with those two.)
Because he was on such a roll, I wonder if he realized that he misspoke, or if the other person mentioned (John Bartkovich) was the real source for this. But Louise didn’t come before the Republican Central Committee during her campaign. Where he probably got the quote about her being her own person was this post on the SU candidate forum:
Smith distanced herself from the “three-pack” controversy, saying that her “message is my partner” and that she was “her own person.”
Of course, immediately after that I noted:
Driving home her main theme one more time in her close, Louise said that the city needs to be more responsible with its tax dollars.
Also, Smith did speak at both the January and February Wicomico County Republican Club meetings, and perhaps that’s what Bill Reddish meant to say.
The reason I bring this up is not to harp on a misstatement, but because I do get grief from some about my reporting of local party affairs. Except for rare occasions (like noting the fact about Louise Smith not attending the WCRCC meetings above), what goes on at a county Republican Central Committee meeting is something I keep close to the vest.
So we’ll see when (or if) Louise Smith decides to sit in the hot seat again. And I suspect it’ll be a long time before Bill Reddish blows through several traffic and news breaks again like he did this morning. But today may be remembered as the day the seething rage harbored by many in Salisbury about their city government came to a head. After all, as Smith noted in her own campaign literature:
“Do you have a sense that the city has lost touch with the citizens? I do.”
Obviously there’s a number of people out there that wonder if Louise Smith has also lost touch with her supporters. This morning’s interview did little to assuage those fears.
Bill R. was taking his usual hay maker swings at someone he dislikes, and the “victim” only needed to do basic counter punching to keep him at bay.
Ms. Smith didn’t do that as well as the pro players he’s tried that on, like O’Malley and Cardin, who quickly KO’ed him, during last years campaigns, but she went the full 15 rounds and probably won on points. More than 2 or 3 rounds were clearly hers, and the others were mostly draws.
I can’t wait to hear her on Robinson’s afternoon show, where the tenor will be just the opposite — sappy and sweetness enough to make you retch. But she will have a clear field of fire at Bill R. and her many and growing group of detractors to be sure.
Thanks for the recap.
Unfortunately, Bill Reddish “lost it” and became curt, sometimes rude and apparently very animated. At one point Smith commented about him jumping up and down and so on, and frequently asked him to stop interrupting her so she could finish even a brief answer (which was very obvious). When she did continue it was mostly hokum and nonsense, so it’s too bad that he muzzled her as he did.
For whatever reason or reasons she seems to have signalled her movement from one side of the fence to the other and her attempt to appear walking along the top rail seems absurd after the rules and appointment work session on Wednesday. She treated Ms. Campbell and Ms. Cohen like 2nd class members of the Council to say the least.
Of prime concern is that she is affiliated with Ron Alessi, who is a clear and present danger (and one of the founding fathers of the “Dream Team”).
In any event she seems to have widened the rift that has long existed between Comegys/Shields, who do whatever Barrie wants, and the council members named above who make an effort to promote the public interest by doing what officials are elected to do.
Salisbury is in for some tough and unpleasant times, and much higher taxes, too, it appears.
The mere fact that a least 2 council members faced up to not really looking at the budget, at the last city council meeting, just a glance. To suggest a high tax hike before looking to make cuts is not what the citizens pay for. I remember the talk about fiscal responsibility during the campaign.
Secondly, the mayor has a $5000 raise for herself in the 2008 budget, and a $5000 raise for each council member, that is fat that can be cut toot sweet. I don’t make claims to be an audit specialist, director of administration, or accountant, however there has to be some more pork to cook off.
One question I would like to know, is who paid for her victory bash at the Chamber of Commerce? Her or the citizens?
Louise says lets not look at the past. The rip rap job on the city park stream was a non-essential, there was no immediate urgency to stop erosion of a non-tidal stream. The $800K spent on that job would have covered the raise for the entire police department. I personally don’t like the look of the rip rap, but I don’t have to like it, however that was a luxury that the city just couldn’t afford, it could have waited.
Things like that are reasons the budget needs to looked at thoroughly before jumping the gun and lets just make it easy and raise taxes. The county tried it and it backfired on them in a big way. There may be a lot of voter apathy here, but when it comes to voting on lower taxes, that is something people will make the time to vote on.
I think Bill exercised great restraint. Yes, he was very frustrated and rightly so. She wouldn’t answer any of his questions. It was like talking to a brick wall. She was a very poor guest. If she didn’t want to be on his show she should have kept avoiding him like she has for the past few weeks.
Louise keeps hammering respect and unity on the council, what happened to respect for those that put her in office? Where is her audit and compliance experience now when it is needed more than ever? I have to wonder now what has she ever audited other than her own checkbook. I have to give it to her, she really snowed a bunch of people. She had better get her ears checked real soon, she might not hear the roaring sound of the avalanche that is to come.
Obviously Louise Smith is closely aligned with Ron Alessi and will undoubtedly continue lining his pockets by absurdly high funding to the zoo. Bill Reddish had the balls to hold her lying feet to the fire like we all would like to and I commend him for it. Did she come to your house and lie to you about her convictions and plans for the city? Well she did ours and lied to my kids as well. MANY MANY MANY of us are more pissed off at her than you can imagine and deeply regret ANY support we gave her, she is a deceitful stupid woman.
i heard only a few moments of bill’s bashing of louise smith… a shouting match of are you calling me a liar and i ain’t hearin the truth… bill’s frustration shows but is reflective of the feeling in this city over the abuse of power…
kiss the tax and revenue caps adieu…
teeman
“Teeman”
Why don’t you help with the referendum petition if you want to keep the current rate “cap” on City taxes? I think Bob Caldwell is the man to contact about that.
Mike, Louise did speak at the WCRC (I’m pretty sure it was the January meeting). It was early in the campaign and she stood up in the meeting and talked about how she was “allied with the taxpayer”. If I’m not mistaken, that was the last meeting that she attended.
Hopefully the April meeting was the last meeting when someone like John Bartkovich tries to ra-ra Louise at the expense of the truth. If you remember, John tried to call her a “principled” candidate while giving his monthly speech. I know that John was just trying to get people pumped a little because a “Republican” had just won an election and we’ve got a new cycle coming.
Fine but don’t call her principled; particulary 5 minutes after she voted to facilitate what could be the largest tax increase in Wicomico County since the 40% increase that facilitated the “Revenue Cap”.
Is there a procedure for drumming RINO’s out of the “Grand Old Party” — if so there should be a dual ceremony for Ron Alessi & Louise Smith.
I hate to bring it up, but if she’s really as principled as claimed, she COULD do the right thing and resign the presidency of the council (since she attained it in a rather fraudulent way), and do what she SAID she was going to do.. vote for Debbie.
It would go a long way with the voters, and might even restore some of her credibility.
Oh, for the opportunity to see someone actually admit a mistake and do something to rectify it…. what ever happened to honor and integrity?
PS- Regarding the ‘secret meeting’.. if there were, in fact 3 council members present and they were discussing city business, wouldn’t that be a majority and a violation of the Open Meetings law?
D.D. – No, Louise said that Shanie was not there for the “secret” meeting. Her car was there but being used by another family member as the story goes. So it was only Gary and Louise present, not a quorum.
G.A. – if you go back and read the summaries I presented of the WCRC meetings, you’ll see that Louise was at both January and February meetings and what she said if anything.
Just got back (late Sat. PM) from family reunion on the Western Shore after hearing most of “the interview” when leaving town early Friday and reading summaries on the blogs as well as Duvafiles “let’s not go there” comment about the audio of the interview that has been posted by other bloggers.
This is by far the best post & comment package on the event. The stuff on “Sbynews” and “Delmarva Dealings” is very clearly biased against Ms. Smith, who has been the target of those bloggers since she was elected the president of City Council. To be sure, I’m very disappointed by her post-election actions, especially at the organizational work session last week.
Nobody involved in the interview of this initial saga of the new City Council looks good except (in my view) Ms. Cohen, who asked for a work session as soon as possible after the April 16 meeting when Ms. Smith was selected as the president. The latter’s negative response to that request and closed if not secret meeting with the Mayor and Comegys — who are the real source of the trouble in the City — bodes badly for open government and the public interest, generally, in Salisbury.
Her posturing as a “healer” is now an obvious absurdity.
Correction of above:
Nobody involved in the interview OR this initial saga . . .
So much for sunshine~!!!
Louise Smith can keep lying all she wants. The video on PAC 14 clearly shows the mayor explaining the process of voting for council president, before she completed her commentary Gary Comegys cut her off in mid sentence and nominated Louise. He was so damned anxious to do as planned he didn’t even wait and pretend to be making a legitimate nomination. It was as clear then as it is right now that her nomination and election was preplanned in their secret meeting if not before.
She doesn’t have the scruples of a piss ant to admit she is wrong and resign her seat. You might as well ask the rivers to flow backwards.
A smarter interviewer than Reddish would have kept quiet and allowed Smith to complete her answers. Then, if she was going to look bad, she could have done it heself. As it is, Reddish was confrontational and rude from the start, and it’s no wonder she got flustered. So the whole thing appears engineered to make Smith look bad from the beginning, and has no credibility. Reddish comes off looking like a very unprofessional shock jock, and whatever Smith said or did during that interview has no real credibility either, because of Reddish’s behavior.