One of these things is not like the others

I love anytime I can give a shout-out to "Sesame Street."

Well. Here we are, maybe at a crossroads. (I'm referring to the possible departure of our mayor before the end of his term, by the way.)

Does anyone else long for the days of a good old-fashioned debate in the City Council?

Are you like me, bored with the 10 "yes" votes and one "no" vote?

Do you think we have a problem here?

Well I'm hearing a lot of buzz about the 10 and the one - and look out, babies, cuz it may soon be 11-0 all the way! Or 9-1 for a while, if they don't have to fill the seat of whoever (Council President James Shanley) gets elected to take over the corner office from Moak as he waves "bye-bye" on his way down to Winthrop.

Oh how I miss the likes of a Gary Roberts or a Bruce Vogel - people who stood up and protested stuff. Although Greg Earls has been pretty fiesty lately. And Katie Ives, although she is frequently one of the "10."

Tom Jones, of course, is the "one."

A promotion for the Youth Services director? I can see in my backwards vision the veins popping out on Gary Roberts' neck, even though that didn't have to be approved by the City Council.

A $6,500 salary supplement (my word) for the City Treasurer/former whatever her position was with the mayor? It's in the City Council agenda, for Tuesday night's meeting.

Overtime for sewer problems that were caused basically by lack of maintenance? Phhht, that's okay - we don't blame you, sewer department. Just hint that you might get us some stimulus funds for the sewer plant project and all is forgiven.

And never, ever mention the potentially HUGE amount of outstanding revenue due from unpaid water/sewer bills.

People, do you really think $40,000 is all that was owed? Who do you think is picking up the slack here?

Someone should force the Sewer Commission and the rest of the city to put that information out there.

The City Council looks kinda stupid, passing outdoor seating for a restaurant without knowing they were going to serve alcohol out there ...

I didn't always agree with Roberts and Vogel, but they along with Jones sure did make things interesting - and never lopsided. I'll bet you a week's pay (peanuts) that Gary Roberts would have been on that sewer dept./outstanding bills thing in a shot.

It has not been even mentioned in passing by any sitting city councillor, that I've heard.

And as Jim Roy suggested in a recent issue of The Liberator, Vogel would have been pelting stones at the windows of the mayor's office after that administrative order that let New Ventures resume thumbing its nose at the city.

I was stunned - stunned - at how little most of the councillors knew about the landfill, based on what I saw Monday night. Stunned.

It seems to me that most of them don't read the newspapers (although I did see Larry McCavitt open a manilla folder that was filled with news stories he'd printed off).

Watch out people - this is going to get dirty and maybe we should all pray that Winthrop picks one of the other guys.

Either way, I'd say the November election will be "gloves off," if Moak is out of the picture.

My predictions?

1. "Suddenly" someone will "discover" something on Jones (an open secret that 'they' for sure already know, since I've heard about it from 2 different people now).

Jones says to come on over to his house on Low St. for tea; the milk in the fridge is fresh - and organic. "I may be conservative, but I am organic," he quipped when I spoke with him yesterday.

He doesn't seem to be too worried about it.

2. Another potentially strong contender for Greg Earls in Ward 2. Fiesty is frowned upon.

3. Ditto for Larry McCavitt, only take the "nother" off the "a" since he ran unopposed in 2007.

4. I wouldn't have thought anyone would mind Brian Derrivan (outside of the people in his ward who have a stinking pile of landfill in their backyard), but ... hey, speaking of Bruce Vogel, he was at the last City Council meeting ...

For such a little town, Newburyport has a big political machine.