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a-german-muffin t1_itq1urd wrote

Reply to comment by AKraiderfan in Controller Rebecca Rhynhart to resign today and launch run for mayor by jberk988

I'll bite, and make this a two-parter:

  • What qualities does she lack generally that would benefit a mayoral candidate?

  • Compared with the current administration (and, for funsies, a hypothetical Republican challenger a la Billy Ciancaglini), where are her shortcomings?

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AKraiderfan t1_itq47u3 wrote

>What qualities does she lack generally that would benefit a mayoral candidate?

Not saying she lacks it, I'm saying that she's not shown anything besides being a good manager of a team of auditors. Her position doesn't really address the other parts of being a mayor, including aligning an entirely self-serving city council to do good work. At the very least, if we want to point to the last two universally effective mayors (Nutter and to some extent Rendel), they were able to if not get support, get their shit passed working through the council. As far as we can tell from her press history, the difference between her and Butkovitz is that she's all about shining a light on problems, but that's a good feature for the Controller, that could burn bridges as the mayor.

Certainly, you do want some qualities of a bridge burner as the mayor, but you still need to work with the other elected and appointed positions, and while you CAN constantly embarrass them in the press, you're going to find yourself with no support next time you want to fix that police contract.

>Compared with the current administration (and, for funsies, a hypothetical Republican challenger a la Billy Ciancaglini), where are her shortcomings?

Didn't say she had shortcomings, I'm saying we don't actually know what she's capable of, but her fanboys/girls seem to already anoint her the best possible candidate.

A good comp on how i see this are famous food critics. We love a good food critic, telling us where the best restaurants are, and why this dish is really well made, or not well made. We love food critics for their writing, but what happens if a food critic becomes a restaurant owner? Certainly that food critic knows good food, but does that critic know how to hire and keep a staff, procure good produce on a regular basis within budget, plan and setup a good facility? And yes, there have been instances in which food critics are actually found to be good restauranteurs, but plenty of them also fuck it up when their job was more than eating and writing about food.

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randym99 t1_itqb68j wrote

Even just demonstrating "being a good manager" is better than we've had with Kenney.

Also, do you really think she's a "bridge burner" ? I don't feel informed enough to say one way or the other, but I don't think her PPD audit was "burning bridges" despite McNesby's hilarious next-day comments (where even he acknowledged she made good points). I thought her office's report was very diplomatic and constructive, placing plenty of the fault for the PD's shortcomings on fixable issues like staffing and process, instead of blaming certain people. I don't know how the report has been received by PPD brass or officers, though. If saying anything publicly about PPD even if mostly apologetic while slightly critical is "bridge burning" well then fuck I guess we're doomed to let PPD dictate our politics.

For me at least, I'm encouraged by her seeming to be diplomatic, professional, competent, engaged, and mission-driven. And yes we've only seen her demonstrate that in a few roles but those seem like skills that will transfer well.

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