Council Decides Tonight

The City Council picks its new colleague tonight when it fills the at-large seat opened up by Steve DiNatale's resignation last month (read Karen Mann's most excellent preview).

Does the council pick Jay Cruz -- strong candidate and sixth-place finisher in 2005 -- or does it go in a different direction? What, exactly, are councilors looking for?

The process is pretty simple: Candidates have a three-minute interview, likely followed by some council discussion, then it votes. Interestingly, some candidates said last week they're weren't doing any campaigning, and thought their letters of interest, resume, and the interview would be plenty. That's going to be some compelling three minutes if that's what they're banking on.

We're not sure our plans for tonight. If we keep this icky flu at bay, get our traditional Tuesday night work done (an editor never sleeps, he just designs pages) and manage to free up the TV near the computer (note to FATV: when can we get council meetings in HD?), we might actually live-blog this thing. If we're relegated to the bedroom TV, we'll update after the event. Either way, we're willing to bet the news will first be posted at the Fitchburg Pride.

It should be an interesting night. Unless the councilors are sandbagging publicly, there's no clear-cut leader here. Cruz would seem to be in the driver's seat, but there's no indication he's a slam dunk. Maybe they're just trying to make him sweat it.

We'll update once we get our technology plans for tonight straightened out (what I really mean is what can I negotiate with Mrs. Save Fitchburg and get my pages done). Perhaps we'll finally break into the world of live blogging. We'll see.