Union, mayor back at it

If you didn't see Saturday's Sentinel, the police union wrote Mayor Lisa Wong a letter claiming she is out of touch and not properly funding the department. Wong said the out-of-touch claim is ridiculous.

Not good times for the mayor. The library folks are already displeased, and the union returns with more fire. And the police department got a little more money through the budget process.

So that's two departments that are looking for money, and are blaming Wong for the financial issues in their departments. There's probably a line where "no money" crosses into "out of touch." Has that line been crossed?

It appears pretty certain the police union is not buddies with Wong, and likely won't ever be. More bad news for Wong, especially in that they don't seem to feel the need to be shy about it. You'd have to think they'll be searching for a candidate to back next fall. You also have to wonder if other departments and unions are going to join the fun.

While we're here, it's worth noting that city councilors told the Sentinel they hadn't seen the letter. But the Sentinel had seen it, and I'm guessing it didn't come from the Mayor's Office. So you'd have to think the union is going to grind its ax in full public view the rest of the way.

But the bad news is now starting to back up on her. Her options are being reduced for next year. She can make run at overrides, or not. If she doesn't make a run at overrides, the library, police and others won't be getting more money and will likely get cut. If she does go for overrides, she'd going to tick off a whole lot of residents who don't want anything to do with an override. The likely outcome would be worst-case: She throws out override questions, everyone gets angry and shoots them down, and the departments still don't get any money, so everyone's angry.

So, what's she going to do? The original override plan went in the dumper with the deadline foul-up of earlier this summer. But at some point -- sooner rather than later -- she's going to have to decide one way or another which way to go on this. Either commit to an override effort or not. And by that I mean either move that way or don't. She can't wait until the holidays to roll out an override effort for February or March for next year's budget. It's gotta happen soon to get people prepared and understand what's going on. She talked about leadership a lot during the campaign, and now might be the time to show it.