Mesa Mayor Keno Hawker was missing in action earlier this week while the rest of City Council as well as three councilmen-elect struggled with how to carve $16 million out of the city’s budget—a casualty of our faltering economy.
Well, he wasn’t really missing. He was in Costa Rica on vacation, had made the plans months ago and had made no secret of his whereabouts.
So the question was, should we thump him, metaphorically of course, on our editorial pages?
We could have and maybe should have, but in the end this is why we decided not to say a word:
Hawker has served the city honorably for eight years and in June will step down and a new mayor will take over his office.
In the meantime, smart, capable people are in place in the city’s administration. You put good people in place and you let them do their jobs.
And let’s not forget the mayor is just one vote out of seven on the Council. The city’s direction does not rest on a single Council vote nor on a single week.
A new group of elected leaders are being phased in as they should be
The budget crisis is their problem and will be their problem, because there’s no simple short-term fix.
Navigating the shoals of the current economy will take months, maybe longer.
It’s OK for the outgoing mayor to take a week off. Godspeed.
Honorably? HONORABLY?!? Jim, Keno Hawker is the worst Mayor in the history of our city. The list of failures and muncipal disasters that occurred during his reign is lengthy and astonishing. Sure, I guess he’s an anti-government guy like you, but come on………HONORABLY????????
Right on, Jeff!
I guess the Cpt of the Titanic was honorable as well, Jim.
Honorably? More like horribly! Mesa is in dire straits, and a contributing factor was him.