I believe that almost everybody knows this already but I thought I should post on it anyway: Doug Waldron will not seek a second term. I hadn’t spent much (if any) time with Doug before I was elected but since serving with him, I have a healthy respect for his intelligence and integrity. The mayor has many jobs not the least of which is to run meetings in an orderly fashion and Waldron did this in spades. We didn’t have too many meetings that were packed with people but those that were he handled admirably.
The second good thing about Doug is that he was always very tolerant of my rookie mistakes. Early on in my tenure I made a motion to close a public hearing before the public had actually spoken. He very gently reminded me that this would probably defeat the purpose of a public meeting. He didn’t make me look like an idiot or really call me out on it. I appreciated that.
Doug also had a deep respect for and enforced adherence to the process of governing. His guidance on this over the last two years has definately made me a better council member. I chafe under the constraints of “the process” but I have come to understand that without the process, there is usually chaos. Some people and some institutions thrive in a chaotic environment. I am an IT consultant and many of my days are barely controlled chaos as I fight fire after fire. Government does not do well in such a setting. Things don’t get done, mistakes get made and inevitably, someone ends up looking foolish. None of this is productive and Doug got me to understand this.
So, my best regards to Mayor Waldron and thanks for his service. Many have asked me about his future intentions. He hasn’t told me so I don’t know. Given his record, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in elected office again sometime soon.