Seven more layoffs needed in Coatesville

Actions — or lack of — by City Council are unacceptable. Take your city back, folks.

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
I honestly wish I were making this stuff up.

Imagine this: a city on the edge of insolvency and a City Council member decided she had too much stuff to do around the house to stick around for crucial votes? And then failing to hire a new, surprisingly qualified police chief — despite the recommendation of the new City Manager?

But all of it, every last little bit of it, happened Monday night in Coatesville.

Not shockingly, State Police Major John “Jack” W. Laufer III — the top candidate to lead Coatesville’s police department — said “uh, thanks, but no thanks” to the city last night.

Frankly, as the city goes through police chiefs and city managers like most folks go through Dixie Cups, it’s a little stunning that anyone would want to take a job in Coatesville. But up until Monday night’s circus, Laufer thought he might be able to make a positive difference in the city.

So to recap: the city is a couple of million bucks short of making it through the end of the year, lost the chance to hire a capable police chief and — bizarrely — can’t seem to find enough people willing to show up regularly and do the job they were elected to do: serve as City Council members.

OK, maybe it sounds like we’re picking on the city, but we (unlike other media outlets teetering on the edge of fiscal insolvency themselves) go out of our way to tell the good stories that happen every day in Coatesville. We walk the streets, grab a cup of coffee at the Little Chef and see first-hand how many people offer their blood, sweat and tears to make the city a better place.

And then there’s City Council. Rarely has there been a Gang of Seven seemingly more dedicated to steering the iceberg into the ship than this gaggle of twits. Instead of public service — as I clearly remember at least three of them talking about passionately back in 2009 as they sought support and backing from the county Democratic Party to run — it has again become a festival of “what’s in it for me?”

Before it comes up, let me be blunt about this: this ain’t about race, it’s about stupid, weak and inept. At best. There are those who argue that criticism of City Council and its members is a racial thing. Bullcrap. And frankly, that’s highly insulting to capable, passionate people of every color, creed or sexual orientation who badly want to see the city succeed.

A very wise man in Chester County politics once gave me this sage advice: “judge people by what they do, not by what they say. That will always tell you what they really think.”

Here’s what the actions of City Council make me think these folks — at least some — really want: they want the city to fail. They, or someone important to them, profits by chaos in City Hall, a weakened police force and citizens afraid of the other shoe dropping. They, or someone close to them, profits and even thrives by the growth of the city drug trade, by the failure of the city to redevelop and grow and the continued misery of thousands of residents.

I get that the city has issues: The culture of corruption runs deep, and the challenges since the steel industry went belly up seem almost limitless. But I also know how many good people live there, people who care about the city and its future — they deserve better.

They deserve better than a City Council that shirks even its most basic duties and then points the finger of blame elsewhere and tries to use the politics of division to distract folks from that simple fact.

They — you — deserve a City Council that gives a damn about the city. If any of these folks had something resembling a conscience, they’d resign. Since we know that’s not happening, it comes down to people of Coatesville.

You have a voice. And you have the right to use it to demand your city government start acting like one, rather than a cookie jar for the elite and a pathetic excuse for cronyism. Get angry and let those empty suits on the dais know of your anger.

Enough is enough.

It’s your city, folks. Take it back.