READER’S EDITORIAL: LA MESA’S CHOICE
By Dr. Anthony Mc Ivor
October 21, 2018 (La Mesa) -- This year’s City Council election offers La Mesa an exciting and encouraging choice. Exciting, because for the first time in many years the challengers present a bright contrast to the incumbents. And encouraging, because La Mesa surely needs the integrity, fresh ideas, community insights, and sheer energy the challengers are bringing to the contest.
As insiders, incumbents enjoy many advantages. But this year is a little different. Burdened with a shallow record of accomplishment, and an utter failure to articulate – despite expending tens of thousands of dollars on consultants – a coherent vision for the city’s future, the incumbents hold out the prospect of four more drab years as a caretaker council.
This position is plain to see in their own campaign materials. Officials who claim credit for city revitalization programs or initiatives that were well underway long before they took office are not leaders. When those same officials point to events that have been part of La Mesa’s public life for decades as their own accomplishments, they are shamelessly riding the coattails of others.
The Council incumbents’ campaign veers from the risible (rising home prices! By their efforts alone?) to the problematic (endorsements from city employees whose salaries and benefits the Council will set). Any mention of plans to complete the permanent library? Nope. Any inkling of a unifying concept for the new civic center? Yawn. Creative thinking on issues that impact greater La Mesa, outside the Village? Crickets.
Enough already. La Mesa deserves – and can now do – better.
It is no crime to pass the years sitting in a caretaker administration. But it is time for a change. Time to open the windows at City Hall. Let’s thank the incumbents for their service, wish them well, and turn the page to a brighter tomorrow.
November 2018 presents a real choice. Given the record, it should be an easy one. Pull the lever for Sheriff’s Commander (ret) Dave Myers and obstetrician Dr. Akilah Weber and get La Mesa back to work.
The opinions in this editorial reflect the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of East County Magazine. To submit an editorial for consideration, contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org.