One of the things I notice about politician Councilman Steve Mitchell is that he is generally more egalitarian than most any power player in Richardson in that he doesn't try to act like a king, even if he does want to be in charge. He doesn't demand or expect peers or appointees or citizens to be his subjects in general. I do not think this is merely because he is unseasoned or wants to be liked, as some have charged. Those things are true in my estimation, but I think he really is egalitarian for the most part.
I also do not think he is a crook and I do not think he is using his office for gain for his business or for his relatives to gain contracts with city hall or overtly primarily propping anyone up who is. I would not say that about any of the other council members or city manager, including some past ones, including ones who do things like put their business in city incubators, who get on council and suddenly a family member gets a 2010 contract with the city, or who puts the name of their business in the city median or bugs staff to put their business' name on city event literature, or gets a new job thanks to political contacts, or tries to hold out of town retreats several counties away at a relative's house as soon as the Charter is changed, or gets business contracts for himself, or lets his relatives use city property. I have not seen him do anything like that. I do not like some of the other things he does at all, like not having guts (to borrow a phrase) to lead to stop an illegal meeting (I have only known about two Council Members who refused to participate in an illegal meeting and he isn't one of them), but I hope he keeps his proverbial hands and his surrogates clean of that other kind of hokey business, which is apparently a difficult thing to do in today's political world.
Oh sure, he builds political capital with some of his appointments and he cowtows to certain people, to his detriment. He regurgitates and speechifies much of the time and his is not close to being a favorite politician of mine. He pretends to be way more partisan, even being the president of partisan groups, than he is, for votes. He is still much preferable to me than one of his MENSA, condescending, highly partisan, mysogenistic, hokey-business apologist competitors from the past who still pops up every now and again to lie about people. But, the minute I see Councilman Mitchell or his relatives get contracts for some emergency management facility or something in Collin County, like one big name politician in Collin County, as an example, or when I see him do something as bad as holding a private meeting with some public purchasing agent and city manager for some business contract where he is involved, is when I start becoming less generous in assessing his ability to keep his hands out of the cookie jar.
Oh sure, he builds political capital with some of his appointments and he cowtows to certain people, to his detriment. He regurgitates and speechifies much of the time and his is not close to being a favorite politician of mine. He pretends to be way more partisan, even being the president of partisan groups, than he is, for votes. He is still much preferable to me than one of his MENSA, condescending, highly partisan, mysogenistic, hokey-business apologist competitors from the past who still pops up every now and again to lie about people. But, the minute I see Councilman Mitchell or his relatives get contracts for some emergency management facility or something in Collin County, like one big name politician in Collin County, as an example, or when I see him do something as bad as holding a private meeting with some public purchasing agent and city manager for some business contract where he is involved, is when I start becoming less generous in assessing his ability to keep his hands out of the cookie jar.
There are two other things I thought of. One is that he is generally good natured and is not grumpy and cranky most of the time.
The other thing is that he is forgiving and unsuspecting, even if he does give payback, doesn't hesitate to throw others under the bus if it suites his political purposes, and tries to play all sides, desparately wants to be embraced, and forgiven, by the establishment figures, and is immature for a guy his age (but no more than the rest). He is forgiving and unsuspecting, of people who are pushing his buttons (not that he doesn't push buttons) sometimes to the point of him being as he has said to so many of us around, pollyanna. I agree with that. I like it that even try as he possibly might, he just isn't as much a shyster as the more successfully artful ones.
The fifth thing, but not the least, is I like some of his issues, but they seem to have been overshadowed lately by less important issues. I like it that he pushed for apartment inspections. I do NOT like it that he was against a Charter Review, he blocked it. But I do like that he tried to get an ethics policy but was opposed by the City Manager and three Council Members (Slagel, Murphy, Townsend), who oddly, along with about seventeen other public figures told us they were all for it. Whether he will push for an ethics policy for his own political reasons or not, I agree with him and others that it should be done. He is opposed by all current six Councilmen and the City Manager on that issue. The excuse is that it is only being pursued as a political swipe at someone. That may be on some people's parts, but Richardson, Texas, City Council and Management needs an ethics policy.
Top three pictures are of the three most recent Richardson City Councils, in order of occurrence. Bottom two pictures are of North Texas Municipal Water Board made up overwhelmingly of prior Council representatives in the region.
(By the way, has Governor Rick Perry taken over that board too, yet?)
(By the way, has Governor Rick Perry taken over that board too, yet?)
One time a former board member and former councilman told me that he thought it was a rubber stamp committee. I was surprised that he would say this, but nothing he has done has surprised me and I have not taken his word for it necessarily at this point.
