I understand from a reliable source that Walt Keller et al. have thankfully given up on their campaign to find a reason to fire our city attorney. The commonly accepted reason for their efforts is that she, having failed to get council approval to hire an independent counsel to handle an alleged violation of election law, pursued the matter herself, as she should. Just think, maybe they could have had Ken Starr.
The harassment of Ms. Hogin has included asking her to postpone a vacation, give Keller what sounded like a minute-by-minute account of how she spent her time for some period, then holding employee evaluation meetings over a long period. Then, apparently having failed, they hired a very expensive lawyer from downtown to conduct an evaluation of all the council’s direct reports, all three.
A large number of citizens have observed that if Bill Clinton had committed his sins while a CEO in the private sector he would have been fired. I think not. However, if any member of senior management had harassed a key official in the private sector as apparently happened to Ms. Hogin, you can bet that the unemployment line would have been longer by now.
So where are we now? Have Ms. Hogin’s pursuers slunk quietly away from a failed and disgraceful effort. I would too. Or maybe one of the individuals responsible will have the courage to stand on the steps of City Hall and apologize — to all of us. I will be there.
I will also be at the polls on next election day with my long memory. And I will hope to have some company, lots of it. Explaining strange behavior of some city officials to people over six time zones is tiresome.
Bill Liverman