Really. Fucking. Scary.

Daily Kos: I AM a small-town mayor

The voters need to be reminded - every day - how badly she [Sarah Palin] failed at exercising those responsibilities.

Because we small-town mayors do have actual responsibilities. Chief among them is the responsibility to exercise fiscal responsibility with the citizens' money. Sarah Palin has demonstrated complete failure at that basic responsibility.

She took a town of ~7,000 people that was debt-free in 1996 and ran it over $18 million into debt by 2003. And, while we theoretically do not have sole authority to do such things - only the town council has such authority - a bad and dishonest and self-serving mayor can, and frequently does, accomplish such glaring misfeasance by either intimidating of misleading her town council. Sarah Palin has done both.

She implemented a 25% increase in the most regressive tax possible - the sales tax - to finance her hockey rink project. Yes, the Queen of the Common Man sure likes to stick it to the common man...every man, woman and child in Wasilla is still paying for her self-promoting delusional expenditures.

She was taking a $68,000 per year salary in 1996 for her job as mayor, and yet used additional taxpayer funds to hire an "administrator" to do her job for her while she enjoyed her "regal" salary for a sinecure job. Most mayors of towns less than 10,000, nationwide, are practically volunteers with salaries generally below $10,000 per year. In fact, the job of the Wasilla mayor, according to the city code, is as follows (this is typical for most small-town mayors):

The Mayor shall preside at Council meeting, act as ceremonial head of the city and sign documents on the city’s behalf upon authorization by the council.

Pretty easy work for $68,000/year, isn't it?

In 2002, Pailn used city employees (on the clock), city equipment, and city facilities to work on her campaign for Lt. Governor. I mean, come on...this is small-town government 101: Thou shalt not use municipal assets for personal campaign purposes.

By 2003, the city of Wasilla owned $741,599 worth of office furniture and equipment (from the city's own Comprehensive Annual Finance Report; I assume that is net of depreciation). Now that's a whole lot o' desks and staplers for a town of 7,000 folks. Well, the town only owned $342,449 worth of that stuff when Palin started in 1996. More than double! Word among locals has it that she had her office lavishly redecorated at least twice while mayor. So much for her stupid story about selling the governor's jet on ebay.

After our almost-sacred fiduciary responsibilty, we mayors are responsible for ensuring the safety of the people who have entrusted us with the office. Palin placed the financial success of campaign-donor cronies above public safety.

She opposed an ordinance changing the closing time of bars in Wasilla from 5:00 AM to 3:00 AM. The Wasilla police chief at the time, Irl Stambaugh, supported the change as a public-safety measure. Palin, who had accepted numerous campaign contributions from local bar owners and the liquor lobby, fired Stambaugh immediately upon taking office.

Palin opposed adopting basic building codes within the city. In 1997, she broke a tie in a city council vote to kill building codes. Even some area homebuilders supported the building codes.

The bottom line is: yes, we small-town mayors do have responsibilities...and Palin demonstrated a complete lack of ability or inclination to handle these limited responsibilities. Meanwhile, I'd be the first to say that I don't consider my own experience as a small-town mayor to in any way qualify me to serve as vice president of the United States, much less serve in a situation where the president is a doddering old man bordering on dementia who may well cause invocation of the 25th amendment.

We preside over council meetings...the VP theoretically presides over the Senate. There's a world of difference.

Our responsibilities are limited. Very limited.

And, we're not a mere heartbeat away from the US presidency.

I have known small-town mayors like Sarah Palin and, trust me, it ain't purty. They exemplify ego-gone-wild, are uncannily susceptible to corruption and influence peddling, and are notorious for abuse of power. The Sarah Palins in the small-town mayors' offices are, unfortunately, all too common.

These United States of America do not need one in the office of the vice president.

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