No Surprise Here
For the last two weeks, I have been enjoined in a culinary extravaganza that has rivaled the presidential races in terms of restaurants and states visited.
It started the week after the municipal election in New Orleans, where we campaigned all over the French Quarter and Garden District (I have the recipe for Pascale’s Manale’s barbecued shrimp). Soon after, we touched down in Baltimore where we hit the local crabhouses before heading north to the most underrated culinary destination in the world, Philadelphia.
And by no accident, no doubt in an attempt to garner attention in The Parkville Luminary, the rest of the political world followed my steps in simultaneous fashion. In Louisiana, President George W. Bush visited town with two hemispherical leaders in tow and in Pennsylvania, I walked amid the tattered campaign signs of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Also, the Parkville political world followed – thanks to cellular technology, I couldn’t escape Parkville politics.
Nobody who read The Luminary during the election season is surprised that Tommy Hutsler is crying foul that he lost the mayoral election to anybody who will give him the time of day.
His latest “hey, everybody! Give me attention!” scheme has been to attack the outgoing mayor (and Deborah Butcher – the Ward 1 alderman who shellacked him like an old piece of furniture in two other elections). Part two of the plan has been to cry to out-of-area media about how much money he spent (said to be $8,000 or, $24 bucks per vote) only to lose in a landslide. The crux of his argument? That former Mayor Kathy Dusenbery forwarded an e-mail from Mayor Gerry Richardson which refuted attacks written by a supporter of Tommy’s on both Mrs. Dusenbery and Mr. Richardson in the days before the election. Tommy – still apparently thinking he is the shrewdest 0-3 politician alive – somehow managed to convince Dave Williams to file an ethics complaint in the matter.
I really like Mr. Williams and have always gotten along well with him. I respect the amount of time and effort he’s put into downtown during the course of his long life. That said, I really wish he hadn’t filed the complaint. I understand that he harbors a grudge against Mrs. Dusenbery (who, in fairness, did shout him down at a meeting of the aldermen a few years back) but this complaint is just silly. Mrs. Dusenbery forwarded an e-mail that listed her title and the address of city hall – her automatic signature on her home e-mail account. Listen to Tommy whine in Platte City’s leading newspaper:
“The ordinance prohibits using your title to help someone else campaign,” Hutsler said. “I spent a lot of money on my campaign and the former mayor and five aldermen endorsed the other candidate and they have every right to do so, but they cannot use their title to do so, according to the ordinance. I ran for mayor and alderman because I have a democratic right to do that, but I did not realize I would be running against six people. This kind of thing may keep other people from running.”
Comedy gold. I would say that it was funnier how the Platte City paper treated the story – like a Muffaletta at Central Grocery, they ate it up – but to me, it’s a far serious matter and even a little personal.
The Parkville ethics ordinance is in place today largely due to the reporting of this newspaper, which went to bat for Hutsler during his first campaign – a run against Alderman Butcher that was marred by an off-flavored campaign letter said to be penned, at least in part, by Bill Quitmeier. Tom complained that the letter was unfair, and in that case, we agreed. Ironically, it was Mrs. Dusenbery – Mr. Quitmeir’s supposed opponent in the upcoming Platte County County Commissioner race in District 1 — who championed the ordinance (I was never a fan of it).
Mrs. Dusenbery will appear in front of Parkville’s ethics committee on April 29. This indulgence of little Tommy’s ego should not be permitted to go any further than that. At most, there should be a slight reprimand since the forwarded e-mail did not actively campaign or show malice – even though, as mayor, Mrs. Dusenbery was of course allowed to respond to any verbal or written attacks involving her successful service to the city. This is America, not Tommy’s pumpkin patch.
Any journalist that’s ever investigated a governmental entity knows just how hard it can be to pin down wrongdoing in an electronic age. At best, all we have on our side is the vaguely understood Sunshine Laws of the state. This complaint makes a mockery of them and actually harms what we’re trying to do.
It does effectively, however, justify my warnings about a Hutsler mayoralty and offers the rest of Parkville (and Platte County) a glimpse of the nonsense downtown Parkville has had to endure for years.
Get over it, Tom – you lost.