Council Message by Ken Suer
A few months ago, we held a local election for City Council, and there since has been some transition. After serving our community for two decades, Lynda Roesch decided not to run and, in effect, retired. Lynda is a class act. On Council, she was always calm, courteous, poised, thoughtful, and she will be dearly missed. I welcome Ron Messer and Sasha Naiman, who both ran for the first time. I also welcome back newly re-elected Chris Dobrozsi and Lee Ann Bissmeyer to join Craig Margolis and Mike Cappel. I am fortunate to work with this smart, competent team!
Unlike the divided country we live in today: “Red states” vs. “Blue states,” “left” vs. “right,” “us” vs. “them,” and a steady diet of inflamed rhetoric, threats, insults, vicious personal attacks, etc., our City Council prefers to operate differently from those places you hear about in the media where back-stabbing, grandstanding, feuding, and fighting are the norm. It’s a radical approach, but our City Council values courteous behavior and working together for the benefit of the city. We get a lot accomplished by avoiding partisan polarization. How we treat each other, staff, and the public is important to us. We strongly believe in civility and treating people with respect.
On another note, after much discussion, we decided not to conduct our Montgomery Citizens Leadership Academy (MCLA) in 2022. Once again, it is too risky with COVID on the rampage. We will resume this great program when it is feasible to do so.
Also, despite the winter weather, the Montgomery Quarter project is taking shape. Obviously, it still looks like just a big, drab construction site, and it might be hard for folks to envision the final look but — eventually, I think you will be very impressed!
Finally, it seems that every year on Groundhog Day, we must rely on Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania to get an accurate prediction on the length of winter. Well, Phil seems to be somewhat erratic with his forecasts. Perhaps Montgomery should have its own meteorologist groundhog (maybe “Montgomery Max”?), so we can get a second opinion. We’ll investigate it.