The Art of the Compromise

The City Council and Mayor Dan Mylott worked out a compromise to the funding of police union raises, and agreed to take a little less out of free cash and grab some money out of some other accounts.

What did we learn through this process? Well, for one thing, no easy baskets for Mylott for the next year. He can expect to get challenged on everything the rest of the way, and likely make concessions as he moves ahead. For the council, they reinforced the recent feeling that it can force change on Mylott's plans.

The end result allows the raises to be funded and preserves some additional free cash. This may, as noted last week, be nothing more than some math formulas in the end, but as of right now there is more free cash available than before, and that's not a bad thing.

What is unknown is how this process changes the mayor-council dynamic into the future. This isn't the first time in the last few months Mylott has had to negotiate a deal with the council. As in the past, Mylott took a hard line early on in this process, but in the end made a deal.

So, what happens next time? Mylott can't start the process by saying "I'm going to talk to council and see what it thinks." It undermines his power and essentially turns the keys over to the council. If he starts from his usual default position -- digging in his heels -- will anyone believe it? Recent experience would lead us to wonder.

In any event, it's going to be an interesting year. Strap in.