THE MAYOR HAS OPTIONS...
The more Mayor Andy Wells speaks on his reasons for staying on as mayor of St. John's, the more we discover the true reason for his desire to hang on to the job as long as possible.
Through media reports, we now have Wells saying he has “some serious legal bills” he has to pay. He does not accept responsibility for these costs because he incurred these bills while performing his duty as mayor. His solution? He has to stay on as mayor.
Thus he wants the citizens of St. John’s to pay his legal bills. This, despite the fact, that at the time of his legal actions he assured citizens his legal expenses “would not cost the citizens a penny”. He went as far as saying that any costs in excess of his legal fees would be given back to the citizens. Why a different tune now? Is this all about political entitlement?
Wells is being disingenuous when he tells us his main reason for staying on as mayor is to save citizens $400,000 in byelection expenses. His media comments confirm this. He is full of contradictions when discussing this issue.
If he is so concerned about the cost of a byelection, I have one question for him: “Why did you accept the position of chair and CEO of the Public Utilities Board with an effective appointment date of March 1, 2008?” When offered the position by the premier, Wells should have said that he would be delighted to take on the job, but because he did not want to trigger a $400,000 byelection could the appointment date be effective October 1, 2008. I’m sure the premier could be accommodating on this point. In fact, why does Wells not give the premier a call now and see if his appointment can be postponed until October 1, 2008.
Another consequence of Wells’ utterances is to make citizens believe that a byelection would only be for the mayoralty. This is not the case. Deputy Mayor Dennis O’Keefe has already indicated he is a candidate for the mayoralty. Therefore an election will have to be held for deputy mayor (in the same byelection). If any of the current St. John’s city councilors wish to run for the deputy mayor’s position, they will have to resign as councilors thus triggering the need, within the same byelection, for new councilor(s). As can be seen, the byelection could be for three or more council positions and, at a minimum, two. Thus the byelection is not just for the mayoralty.
The mayor also appears to be a little confused about democracy. He said he would listen to citizens. However, when he received the results of a NTV polling survey, he was somehow able to interpret that 42 per cent was a majority. This despite the fact that 45 per cent said they wanted him to leave the mayor’s job.
Of those who wanted him to leave, Wells believes some of them would change their minds if they knew it was going to cost $400,000 for a byelection. Talk about interpreting a result to meet your own needs. So, does this mean that some of those who wanted him to stay on, only did so because of the cost and not because of his performance as mayor?
Whichever way the result is interpreted, Wells did not receive a ringing endorsement of his leadership or a desire by the citizens of St. John’s for him to stay on as mayor. I’m not sure what school of democracy the mayor attended (a minority one?) but the citizens have spoken and they do not want him to continue as mayor. Perhaps the above percentages would change now after his latest comments concerning his need to pay his legal fees - and not in a positive way for the mayor.
Many of Wells’ reasons for hanging on to the mayor’s job are smokescreens to divert attention away from his only reason for staying in the mayor’s chair – legal bills. Citizens should not be paying his legal bills.
Wells should do the honourable thing and resign as mayor of St. John’s effective February 29, 2008.
