Potholes are Diebold's ploy from superintendents' play book

Living in Newark for a few political cycles will demonstrate conclusively that mayors use potholes the way school superintendents use buses. People don't want potholes and they do want buses and so they become first-line pressure points to get citizens to part with ever-increasing amounts of money.

There is one basic thing about city finances that isn't hard to understand: We are going to have potholes and we need to plan for that. It's called budgeting for necessities.

If the city budget fails to account for city potholes - even with the addition of the $1-million Diebold cash cow from EMS services - then what in God's name is wrong with city budgeters?

It's not that the city doesn't already have money. It's only that the mayor doesn't want to use that money. He wants new money and the auto tag tax is handiest tool of the moment.

If he had the tag tax money to shift around then likely the new $100,000 traffic light for Mayor Diebold's neighborhood would be easier to sell to Council. So he's trying to weasel it from citizens in spring, when the pot-hole problem is most annoying and folks have to slow down to posted speed limits. It's a ploy right out of the superintendents' ploy play book.

Diebold, already looking like a shoo-in as another one-term mayor, took his pothole plan to Council's Ways and Means Committee Monday evening. Two of the three members of that committee (Irene Kennedy (AL) and Doug Marmie (6th Ward) voted to hold the idea back from a full vote of council until the overall spending plan could be studied more throughly. Voting in favor of sending it to Council was Ed Houdeshell, pride of the 1st Ward.

Marmie likened the mayor's plan to a Band-Aid that wouldn't address any long-term needs. Then he spoke words Newark has been longing to hear: He said the city should look for places to make cuts in spending.

Those are words of a responsible representative of Newark citizens, so hooray for him.