Reality Check

And I thought the Bay mayoral election was over! Given that Alex Dade and some of his family members combined to provide something like one-half the campaign funds for Jim Scott's mayoral campaign, I can see why Dade might be a bit frustrated by the result. You need to let it go, Alex! You're just not going to be a power behind the throne. At least for the next 4 years. That's reality.

I chose to ignore Dade’s rantings in his columns during the campaign, chalking them up to Scott-induced negative campaign tactics. The continuation of the attacks and derivative misinformation, however, require a response.

So here we go, let's project some reality:

Why is Dade so unremittingly anti-Sutherland? Does he really think she has been a bad mayor? Nope, what really has his shorts in a twist is the fact that the mayor refused to support him in his opposition to the expansion of the Bradley Bay Health Center. An expansion that occurred, by the way, as a direct result of a Dade-led group that successfully torpedoed an expansion of the condo complex next door to Bradley Bay.

Dade's most recent rant accuses the mayor of violating the charter in terms of a submission of a budget to city council 45 days prior to the end of the current fiscal year. Reality? What the charter requires is an estimate of revenues and expenditures that is submitted to council and the county for purposes of tax rate validation. That submission is typically made in August or September of each fiscal year, and was made in September of this year. The final budget of the city is a negotiated collaborative effort of the administration and council and is required by state law to be complete by March 15th of the budget year. There is and has been no violation of the charter. Does Dade really think that the state auditor would fail to note such an alarming violation in the auditor's annual audit findings?

Dade continues to vilify the mayor for violations of the state's sunshine laws relative to council executive sessions. Reality? Council executive sessions are called for and voted on by council. The mayor has no vote, and cannot call an executive session nor does she have any voice in the control of the sessions. That responsibility lies entirely in the hands of the council president and members of council. Jim Scott made an issue of the executive sessions during his campaign, accusing the mayor of violating the law. Scott, in fact, voted in favor of every executive session during his six years on council, and never expressed any concern about the sessions or their content. Until his campaign, that is.

One has to wonder why such a "concerned citizen" and civic activist has failed to run for office. Could the reality be that a candidate for office is subject to a certain amount of background scrutiny and that could be potentially embarrassing to Alex Dade? The final reality is that time will tell.

Tim Maloney is a former Bay resident who now lives in Avon Lake.

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