Winning smiles ..

Mayor Sanders and Republican Alderwoman Diane Ga/Jagberafter Gallagber decided to vote for Sanders'
development office.
San d er s W i n s t h e B at t l e By Hamilton E. Davis
BURLINGTON
~
fter harassing Burlington
Mayor Bernard Sanders
wi t h out ceas e for t wo
years, the Board of Aldermen
gave him the keys to the city
Monday. Whether they intended
t o or n ot i s open t o ques t i on .
The keys came in the form of
approval of the mayor's proposed
offi ce of econ omi c an d commu-
nity development, a new arm of
government that will have astaff
of six, and a budget of more
than amillion dollars in federal
money.
Most important, itwill answer
directly to the mayor and the
aldermen - which will inevitably
in pr act i ce mean t h e mayor -
wi t h out a commi s s i on t o s n ar l
up the works. And it will have a
mandate to deal with the city's
most pressing problems - hous-
ing, the waterfront, youth pro-
grams, the works.
In 99 cases out of 100, you
would not get such a crucial
d eci s i on on s o crucial an i s s ue
wi t h out a t i t an i c, beh i n d -t h e-
scenes struggle. In 75 cases out
of ahundred.you would not get
it without buying several poli-
ticians at high prices or fighting
a tong war.
In fact, the landslide appar-
ently wasn't triggered byanything
SO mun d an e as a t on g WAr; it
WdS set off ruther by a series of
comments from local business-
men to the effect that if the
aldermen are concerned with
the best interests of the city, they
would go along with the mayor.
Richard Feeley, alocal realtor
said that he was disappointed to
see the board so badly split at a
t i me wh en it i s at a cr os s r oad s
in its development. "I haven't
heard anything of apositive note
coming from my right hand side
of the <ableother than politics,"
he said.
Having heard these comments,
three Republicans - Will Skelton
of Ward 4, Diane Gallagher of
Ward 6, and Allen Gear of Ward
4 - joined the live Sanderista
board members to give the pro-
posal afavorable eight to fivego
ahead.
No one was more surprised
by the outcome than the San-
dcrs adrninistratlon. Even wh en
the first Republican fell into line,
the Sanderistas thought that the
bcst the)' could do was six votes,
saki one adrnirustrarion member
If it is not dear why the San-
ders opposition collapsed so
suddenly. there em be no doubt-
ing the importance of the vote
and tilt: offi ce' s ad mi n i s t r at i ve
and political significance. Thus:
The cit)' planning depart-
ment - the only real center of
exper t i s e i n ur ban affai r s t h at i s
committed to thc old Demo-
crane mach i n e - h as been gut-
ted; the planning commission,
one of the most important com-
missions in the city, has a vastly
reduced role.
There probably can be no
mor e s er i ous r es t r ai n t s on San-
ders' ability tocarry out his pro-
gram. Ifhe hires a talented di-
rector for the new agency, the
Board of Aldermen won't have a
chance to keep up with a com-
plex, last-moving program.
The Dernocratic block on
the board is now in such disar-
ray that itprobably can no longer
function at all, let alone effec-
tively.
At Monday's meeting, for ex-
ample, Maurice Mahoney of
w.lfd I proposed adetailed alter-
native tothe mayor's proposal -
and fuiled toget asecond tohis
motion. This sort of performance
can't be taken seriously: no poli-
tician should bewalking out into
t h e s t r eet wi t h out maki n g s ur e
that at least one person isbehind
him.
Meanwhile.james Burns, the
Ward 5Democrat who has been
Sanders' single most implacable
opponent, appears to be thor-
oughly isolated. Hewas reduced
to arage by Monday's outcome,
and this fuel alone could begin
to cost him Republican votes in
his anti-Sanders campaign,
On the Republican side,
Diane Gallagher is rapidly sac-
rificing her claim to be taken
seriously. She supponed tile San-
ders proposal at first, shifted
strongly into opposition, then
,wung back again Monday night.
For the ITIOstpart, the Sander-
ista performance in all this has
been pretty straightforward,
they can be forghen for empha-
sizing the efficiency rather than
the shift-of-power aspects of the
proposal.
On the other hand, Ward I
AkIerman Rick Musty'scomment
that the new ageney in noway
con t r aven es t h e commi s s i on
IOrmof goyernment was aliltJ e
too much. Ifit hadn', ron shaIply
coun t er t o t h e wh ol e commi s -
sion idea, it wouldn't have been
worth having.
'I\vo questions remain open
in the wake of the vote. One is
whether the silly opposition to
Sanders - things such as not let-
ting him speak or arguing about
where he sits - will now cease.
The other iswhether the Repub-
l i can s , s ome of t h em at an y r at e,
will begin to play a different
game,
It may have occurred to peo-
ple like Gear, for example, that
it really does make sense to set
up an economic development
arm in the city. Sanders gets to
us e it n ow, of cour s e, but San -
ders won't be mayor forever, and
the fact is that the sort of di-
rect-line-to-the-rnayor structure
isfur and away the most efficient
way tooperate.
With the Democrats appar-
ently determined tokeep snarling
over the same old pile of bones,
the Republicans could begin
looking both at how best to run
the city and how best to get a
crack at doing it themselves.
, ,