Watching the Sun Valley mayor and City Council spend six hours trying to decide how to allocate $75,000 or just 1 percent of its $6.1 million budget last week was like watching a bad reality TV show about a dysfunctional family.
Instead of discussion, the public saw little more than pronouncements about the positions of the mayor and members of the City Council.
The public saw discussion displaced by posturing and parliamentary procedure wielded as a weapon to silence dissent.
It saw a presentation about $2.7 million in rainy day funds the city has in the bank—an amount equal to 44 percent of its total budget. Yet, the public heard no discussion about whether keeping the amount that high when it's raining economic cats and dogs is really necessary.
It saw providers of services to the city—Mountain Rides, Ketchum Recreation Department and the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber and Visitors Bureau—come before the council requesting contract renewals. Yet, given their reception at the meeting, they could have been mistaken for welfare cheats in line for big checks.
The public saw the mayor insist on and succeed in protecting raises for city employees at the same time people in the private sector are losing jobs and wages.
It saw polarized council members criticize the proposed budget, but offer no alternatives for shifting money around.
Instead, the public saw low-level grudges played out, demeaning lectures delivered and parliamentary gamesmanship engaged.
And if things weren't tense enough, Mayor Wayne Willich took potshots at the city of Ketchum and made clear his personal disdain for its elected officials and its operations.
All of this took place under a strained veneer of good humor.
Sun Valley's family of elected officials contains a domineering mayor, a favored council member who is allowed nearly free reign to speak his mind or present information, another who intermittently is the object of the mayor's wrath, one who looks sullen and says little, and one who persistently tries to bring peace to a group that isn't getting along well.
It was embarrassing to watch the mayor stop the meeting and verbally upbraid Council member Joan Lamb for violating procedure by using a Blackberry while the meeting was underway.
Mayor Willich proudly insists that his city doesn't do "Kumbaya" retreats or group hugs.
He ought to rethink that position.
If there were ever a group of elected officials that needed a discussion about how to disagree without being disagreeable, this mayor and council are it.
