The slow summertime blues at City Hall – Council doesn’t return to the dais until next week – makes column fodder scarce. With temperatures reaching into the triple digits, how does Will Wynn keep up his workout regimen – and prevent any unsightly chafing? Have Laura Morrison and Randi Shade familiarized themselves with City Hall’s restrooms, fire exits, and the trap doors beneath the dais? What scintillating plans does Brewster McCracken have to remake the office of mayor pro tem?
Don’t laugh. (OK, you can laugh a little.)
Let’s take a look at that last question. As the largely ceremonial title usually bestowed on the longest serving council member, mayor pro tem – the chair of the council when the mayor is absent – fit its former recipient, Betty Dunkerley, like a glove: A long-serving city employee before running for her seat, the grandmotherly Dunkerley was able to form alliances and build consensus as dais diplomat.
Whereas Dunkerley was relatively low-profile, bird-dogging projects quietly to fruition, Big Mac’s rep is the big-picture guy, eager to pick up shiny new projects, push them along for a while, lose interest, and move onto the next thing. It’s somewhat of an unfair characterization, as he has done yeoman’s work on several ambitious projects – citywide design standards, for instance. There are also abandoned piles of unsatisfying, incomplete enterprises: McCracken’s city-run parking garage proposal comes to mind. Granted, McCracken’s been a big transit advocate, and any failure in that gridlocked department has a hundred fathers. Perhaps most damaging was his “we’ll-work-out-the-financing-later” soft-shoe on a November rail vote – that may well have pushed it from the ballot (or at least made it much easier for the Statesman‘s editorial bludgeons to kill the baby in its crib).
There’s also the consensus question. While the mushy middle that the current council has gravitated toward under Wynn ain’t inspiring – unless a lot of 7-0 votes, with most disagreements hammered out in advance, do it for you – for tough, broad decisions shaping the city’s future, consensus is required. Yet since his elbows are far sharper than Dunkerley’s, it’s uncertain how much consensus McCracken can create. Politically, he’s found himself at odds with Lee Leffingwell and Mike Martinez; the infighting will only increase as McCracken mounts a long-bandied-about mayoral run – most likely against one of his dais mates. Plus, the guy is busy as always (he was out of town at press time, attending a semiconductor conference in California).
McCracken’s wasted no time adopting the trappings of his new title – for instance, he’s created a new website (www.brewstermccracken.org) which proudly trumpets his pro tem credentials. So knowing what we know, do we have anything to fear from Mayor Pro Tem McCracken? It really comes down to whether Dunkerley’s revered stature was more of a product of her personality or the trappings of the office. Given her extensive history with the city (i.e., knowing where the bodies were buried), it’s the former and not the latter. And moreover, the oracle-like reverence her colleagues allotted to Betty Almighty on all matters budget related has come back to haunt them, as they face down a rough budget for the first time on their own.
If anything, entering rough times, we don’t need another mayor pro tem to hold the council’s hand. Luckily for us, Brewster McCracken is just the man for that job.
Back to work: Council returns from summer break next week, Thursday, July 24. Submit tips, story ideas, and vacation essays to wdunbar@austinchronicle.com.
This article appears in July 18 • 2008.