DeSalvatore Says Boot Cronin

Yeah, yeah, this space has become all Ted DeSalvatore all the time, but man, the guy is making news like crazy.

Today's latest: He publicly calls for Police Chief Edward Cronin to be removed. DeSalvatore has been saying a lot of this behind the scenes for the last month or so, but now he's taking it public.

Cronin takes a pass on commenting in the story, but Mayor Dan Mylott backs his guy and says he's staying.

DeSalvatore is upping his scorched-earth theory on this one. He can forget about getting help from the Police Department on anything from now on, and he can probably count on about the same from the Mayor's Office. How do his colleagues on the council feel about this? He may be left to hang out to dry on this one. Councilors and officials haven't been rallying around this guy lately.

It's time to start trying to figure out DeSalvatore's grand plan here. Is he just a maverick councilor doing what he thinks is right by any means necessary? Or is he sharpening up for a mayor's campaign.

If it's the first, we don't mind too much. An 11-member council can be well served by someone with a little manic energy (and let's be honest here, outside of Tran, DeSalvatore has been Publicly Active Councilor Number One this term). He might end up being on his own a lot of the time, but he can certainly survive -- and thrive. If he gets a few colleagues to support his Cronin: Out campaign, all the better.

If it's the latter, though, DeSalvatore really needs to sit down and think about his strategy. In the last few months he's gone from energized to bomb-thrower. To publicly call for the chief's ouster is no small move. Hopefully he understands that. He'll feel repercussions from this both internally (city officials won't be embracing this guy as quickly or as firmly as before), and the public might begin to wonder about this guy.

Here, perhaps, is the most disturbing paragraph from the Sentinel story:

DeSalvatore alleged a panel discussion organized by Cronin for later this month
is intended to distract attention from a neighborhood meeting DeSalvatore is
holding the same night to discuss gangs.

That may, in fact, be true, but should that be a concern (at least publicly) for DeSalvatore? Is he concerned Cronin is going to rain on his parade and steal some of the spotlight and ink? Wouldn't the city better served if DeSalvatore instead embraced Cronin's meeting and said, "It's great the city is working to concentrate on this issue."

Instead, DeSalvatore is calling for Cronin's head on a platter. It's not going to happen, unless the council backs DeSalvatore and makes it an issue. And even then, Mylott can dig in as hard as he wants. Will the council back DeSalvatore? We're betting on "unlikely" right now.

Again, we've spent a lot of time on DeSalvatore in the last few months, but he bears paying attention to. He's given plenty of indication that he might want to be mayor. How he convinces us that he's mayor material is important. And it's safe to say the questions are already starting.