Newark needs professional management

From a recent Advocate article:

"The mayor said he has alligator skin to deflect the criticism, but it’s hard to ignore everything that is said.

'I’m pretty tough, but it gets through sometimes,' Bain said. 'The venom is much deeper than I ever imagined. You understand why a lot of good people stay away from public office. The criticism has caused an enormous amount of stress.'"

Mayor Bain can blame "venom;" I blame ineptitude.

The mayor's qualifications for running this multi-million-dollar business called The City of Newark is, as he admitted in an interview with WCLT:

"I have a background in teaching American Government and American History; as well as serving directly in Newark City government."

In other words, he has no management experience whatever. He's a high school teacher, for God's sake. He has degrees in social studies and humanities.

That's not venom. That's the root of the problem. You don't just automatically gain the ability to administer huge pots full of public money and hundreds of public employees because you can make voters believe you're a good guy.

You get these abilities from A) education and B) experience.

And that's precisely the reason Newark needs a city manager form of government.

Not having someone at the helm who can lift himself out of politics and who has a genuine ability to manage people and money has been the problem with Newark's mayors for the 45 years I've been observing Newark mayors.

The simple truth is this: Newark will never have anything more than politics-based amateurs making decisions and setting policy, not until citizen-voters wise up and insist on professional management.